Sino company offers to explore Alegria oil

A CHINESE firm presented to the Provincial Board yesterday their plan to conduct an onshore oil exploration in Alegria town, southwest of Cebu.

Alan Stawicki, chief operating officer of the China International Mining Petroleum Co.  Limited (CIMP), said Alegria is considered a potential area for oil and gas exploration.

He assured the PB that the oil exploration will not cause environmental and health problems.

“The drilling activity is not expected to affect the environment since its is basically a drilling exploration project,” Stawicki said.

Among the advantages of an oil exploration, he said, include additional revenue to the government and economic developments like job opportunities.

Regional Director Antonio Labios of the Department of Energy in Central Visayas (DOE-7) is hoping the exploration would yield oil deposits of “commercial quantity.”

Labios was present during the session yesterday afternoon. The oil exploration project will cover an area of 197,000 hectares. Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol