The Department of Energy (DoE) is awaiting the decision of Malacañang to move forward with the proposed service contracts issuance for hydrogen exploration in the country.

In an interview, Energy Secretary Raphael Perpetuo Lotilla confirmed that the department has already completed the necessary assessments for the locations and criteria for hydrogen exploration, which have been pre-determined and published. 

However, he emphasized that the final approval rests with the Office of the President.

“The service contracts have to be submitted to the Office of the President for approval,” Lotilla said. 

“I don’t want to preempt the Office of the President from acting on it. And so we will make the announcements when the President has approved the same,” he added.

The DoE has already set deadlines for the submission of the service contracts, which are now under review. Once approved, the department will officially announce the locations and partners selected for the hydrogen exploration initiative.

9 applications thus far

To date, nine firms — six international and three local — have applied for petroleum and hydrogen exploration blocks in the Philippines.

The applications were submitted for the first Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Conventional Energy Bid Round and the 2024 Philippine Bid Round.

In the BARMM bid round, the DoE, in coordination with the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Energy, received three bids for exploration in the Cotabato and Sulu Sea basins. All three applications are now qualified for further evaluation. 

For the 2024 Philippine Bid Round, five applications were received for native hydrogen exploration in Central Luzon. 

The DoE previously said that it expects to complete legal, technical, and financial evaluations by the fourth quarter of 2024.

Notably, this year’s bid round has seen the highest number of valid applications since the 2015 Philippine Energy Contracting Round.

The development of hydrogen, seen as a potential clean energy source, is part of the government’s broader push to diversify the country’s energy mix and reduce carbon emissions.