The Philippine military and coastguard have stepped up security around a newly announced natural gas discovery off Palawan, treating the operation as a test case for protecting future offshore energy projects in contested waters, according to officials familiar with the deployment.
Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, spokesman for the Philippine Navy, said the country’s armed forces felt increasingly confident about securing offshore energy assets because of new equipment, improved surveillance and the near-constant presence of US warships in the region.
Last Friday, Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner Jnr visited the Malampaya gas field and said the mandate of the Joint Task Force Malampaya would be expanded to include the new gas find.
According to Trinidad, Malampaya East-1 lies on the outer fringes east of Reed Bank, an underwater feature inside the nine-dash line that outlines Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea.
The heightened security was because of Malampaya East-1, Trinidad said, and the task force’s mission was ‘to ensure the safety and the security of the [existing Malampaya] oil rig to include the underwater pipeline that goes all the way to Calatagan, Batangas’ on the island of Luzon. Batangas is 109km south of the capital Manila.