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The United States is secretly protecting Philippines multi-trillion oil and gas deposits in the West Philippine Sea by guarding Manila's sovereign rights, sending its strongest warships and aircraft carriers patrolling the vast sea of Philippine EEZ. The United States also developed several bases across the archipelago strategically positioned near oil and gas deposit.
The Philippines is sitting on a mountain of gold within the country's 200-mile exclusive economic zone, having potentially recoverable hydrocarbon deposits. According to a report by the US Geological Survey and China's Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources, the oil deposits on Spratley's Island could reach 17.1 billion barrels. The amount of hydrocarbon deposits in the country could be more than 26.3 trillion, more than the 13 billion barrels of oil deposits of Kuwait, one of the world's top oil producers.
The US Energy Information Agency estimates that the South China Sea holds about 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 11 billion barrels of oil, improved and probable reserves, most of which lie along the margins of the South China Sea rather than under disputed islets and reefs. While the US Geological Survey in 2012 estimated that there could be another 160 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 12 billion barrels of oil undiscovered in the South China Sea. Beijing's estimates for hydrocarbon resources under the sea are considerably higher but still modest in relation to China's overall demand, where the country's oil consumption in 2018 is expected to top 12.88 million barrels per day.
With these, the United States is actively supporting the Philippines' efforts to explore and secure its oil and gas reserves in the West Philippine Sea against Chinese obstruction, primarily through enhanced defense alliances, joint task forces, and rejecting China's expansive claims, signaling a commitment to deter coercion and enable Filipino resource development, which is crucial for Philippine energy security.
In 2023, the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative reported that several countries are pursuing new oil and gas development projects in those contested waters, which the organization notes could become a flashpoint in the disputes. China, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia have moved forward with their energy exploration and development projects, while the Philippines continues to suspend all such ventures in contested waters, a policy adopted in 2014.
However, in 2024, the United States voices its interest in the Philippines' multi-trillion oil and gas industry. A joint exploration within the Philippine exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea is expected, as Philippine companies that have been given concessions in the area have been seeking potential partners in the US for a joint venture in the exploration of energy sources.
Electricity costs in the Philippines are not only threatened by movements in the global energy markets but also by the expected depletion of the Southeast Asian nation's only indigenous source of natural gas. The Malampaya gas field, which accounts for at least 40% of electricity needs in the Philippine capital region, is projected to run dry by 2027, with expected serious repercussions for the economy. Philippine energy and oil and gas industry are expected to heavily benefit from the 100 billion dollar investments that the Philippines is expected to gain in the coming years. There is an opportunity for the Philippines to attract investments, particularly from US and Japanese firms that might leave China in the wake of the political tension in the West Philippine Sea. Philippines' increasing bond with the US and Japan could significantly boost Manila's positioning as an investment destination.
The United States is pursuing an industrial policy to develop Manila's oil and gas industry, which is estimated to have trillions of worth of untapped deposits in which China wants to occupy. Between 2018 and 2025, there were numerous standoffs between China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and other Southeast Asian countries over drilling operations in disputed areas of the South China Sea. And fears are building that even more severe confrontations lie ahead. Fresh conflicts in the South China Sea may arise as claimants, excluding the Philippines, push ahead with oil and gas projects in areas Beijing claims.
According to a new report, data from US-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative detailed claimants' new offshore projects, many of which lie inside China's sweeping nine-dash line claim, including sites where confrontations previously took place. According to ThinkTank, with the China Coast Guard increasing the frequency of patrols across disputed waters, the prospect of confrontation between Chinese law enforcement and oil and gas operators at many of these locations is high. As suggested, Manila should hold joint patrols with the United States and seek the help of the Philippine Navy when it launches exploration activities in the South China Sea.
China has been critical of the Philippines' growing security ties with the US, calling the United States a threat to regional peace after the Marcos government gave it increased access to military bases under their 2014 enhanced defense cooperation agreement in the Kalayaan group of islands, where US Geological Survey and China's Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources confirmed that it holds 17.1 billion barrels of hydrocarbon deposits, with an estimated value of $26.3 trillion, becoming a focal point of Philippines' defense by building military bases within the island.
With the newly discovered offshore gas field, the Malampaya East One, located 45 miles from mainland Palawan, lies within the country's exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, a 200-nautical-mile stretch of water from a country's coastline, where it has exclusive rights to explore and harness resources under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Coincidentally, the United States and the Philippines are developing several military bases where the Malampaya gas field is located, just around China's expansive nine-dash line claims. This overlap creates significant geopolitical tension, with China questioning the presence of foreign bases near the disputed area. The United States developed two of the nine bases across the archipelago, strategically positioned near oil and gas deposits. This hints that the United States is secretly protecting Philippines' multi-trillion oil and gas deposits in the West Philippine Sea by guarding Manila's sovereign rights, sending its strongest warships and aircraft carriers patrolling the vast sea of Philippine exclusive economic zone. Above all, positioning military bases just right next to the Philippines' oil and gas reserves.
China has been critical of the Philippines' growing security ties with the US, calling the United States a threat to regional peace after the Marcos government gave it increased access to military bases under their 2014 enhanced defense cooperation agreement. US and Philippine governments are completing the construction of the military runway in Balabac Island, near the Philippine oil and gas reserves within the disputed West Philippine Sea. One of the key locations of the enhanced defense cooperation agreement (EDCA) between the Philippines and the United States is in the Kalayaan Group of Islands, where US Geological Survey and China's Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources confirmed that it holds 17.1 billion barrels of hydrocarbon deposits with an estimated value of $26.3 trillion, becoming a focal point of Philippines' defense by building military bases within the island.
The military runway is a 3 km airstrip on Balabac Island in Palawan, in western Philippines, considered for both military and civilian use, designed to enhance the military presence of the Philippines and United States and is intended to boost Manila's defense capabilities in the West Philippine Sea. Balabac also hosts one of the country's most strategic naval stations of the Philippine Navy, Westernmost Territory, aside from hosting the United States military under the enhanced defense cooperation agreement. Balabac Naval Station is also upgraded, which is located on the other side of the island from the airfield. The ambitious plan to enhance the naval base with the construction of a causeway and pier. Upon completion, this infrastructure could accommodate larger vessels and amphibious transports, as evidenced by the diagram of the project depicting a frigate or destroyer-sized ship as a reference for the scale of the pier. Other notable projects at the naval station include a beach ramp and staging area, which would allow for easier access to construction materials for future EDCA projects. The runway project is costing around $3.1 million, while the naval base will cost the Philippine government around $5.5 million. Like the runway, the naval station's projects began before EDCA and are funded by the Philippine government. The infrastructure projects are among priorities under the Philippine government and are part of efforts to open the region south of the capital to new investments, ease transportation, and strengthen the tourism sector.
The Philippines is ramping up its maritime defense posture, which currently has established and upgraded several naval bases in critical areas across the archipelago, including the Balabac Island base under a basing agreement with the United States and a former American base in Luzon. What was once a remote and rarely visited outpost in the West Philippine Sea may soon become Manila's newest frontier to secure Manila's oil and gas reserves against Chinese aggression in its sovereign waters, with multi-billion investment in Pag-asa Island, like the newly completed runway at Rancudo airfield. Additionally, the sheltered naval port, aircraft hangar, and control tower on the island are also close to being finished. These upgrades are part of a larger national effort to improve force posture, logistics, and monitoring capabilities in the South China Sea, primarily through ongoing military and civilian infrastructure projects to improve facilities and bolster its presence in the West Philippine Sea.
Over the past few years, the Philippine government has allocated 3.2 billion pesos to build ports and an airport on two of its remote outposts in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Manila allotted 1.65 billion pesos for the expansion and development of an airport in Pag-asa Island, where a 300 million pesos sheltered port will also be built. A separate 1.008 billion pesos has been earmarked for another sheltered port facility on Lawak Island. The Philippine government is upgrading defense capabilities and fortifying its position in the West Philippine Sea, with Pag-asa serving as a critical staging ground, increasing its military presence on the island as part of a broader strategy to fortify its occupation in the Kalayaan Island group. The Philippines formerly annexed Pag-asa, which is also known as Titu Island, as its westernmost territory in 1978. At just 37 hectares, roughly the size of 52 FIFA soccer fields, the feature may seem like just another tiny speck in the West Philippine Sea. Manila's designation for the South China Sea waters within the country's exclusive economic zone. Yet Pag-asa's location, a stride key maritime trade routes, gives it immense strategic importance, particularly against the backdrop of the territorial disputes and the intensifying US-China geopolitical rivalry. This explains why Pag-asa, meaning hope in Tagalog, is surrounded by an armada of Chinese vessels. This includes a mix of Navy, Coast Guard, and maritime militia assets that are often so close to the shore that they are clearly visible to the naked eye. Chinese militia ships were regularly spotted surrounding Pag-asa Island while entering inside its territorial sea. At one point, having had an effective occupation and control over it, Manila asserts sovereignty within the 12 nautical miles territorial sea of Pag-asa Island, which is beyond the West Philippine Sea.
Throughout the years, the United States continued to upgrade Philippine military capabilities through constructions and improvements of military bases for high-end operations against China's aggression in the West Philippine Sea and the Greater South China Sea. This is part of the US efforts to strengthen the Philippine Navy's capabilities in the disputed waters and falls under the larger umbrella of the US program to improve Manila's military bases. With these, the Philippines, with the support of the United States, are ramping up their joint maritime defense posture, which currently has established and upgraded several naval bases and plans to build more military facilities in critical areas across the archipelago. The US and the Philippines plan to establish 28 forward operating bases or small navy outposts in strategic locations near the West Philippine Sea and the Philippine Rise in the country's northeast, which has seen increased incursions from Chinese vessels in recent years.
The United States awarded a contract to upgrade Philippine base at Naval Detachment Oyster Bay in Palawan, a province in the western Philippines facing the disputed waters of the West Philippine Sea. The Pentagon recently awarded a 56 million pesos design-build contract to New Mexico-based contractor Ace Builders Incorporated for a boat maintenance facility at Naval Detachment Oyster Bay, Palawan, to support the Philippine Navy's small boats and unmanned surface vessels near the South China Sea. Aside from the naval detachment in Oyster Bay, American funding in western Palawan has also encompassed a new site in the south of the province. Contracts for a barracks and maintenance facility in the municipality of Quezon bring Manila's small boat capabilities closer to Second Thomas and Sabina Shoals. US and Philippine Marines have previously trained in small boat operations during archipelagic defense drills off western Palawan. These 56 million pesos US-funded projects are part of the Pentagon's $500 million, around 28 billion pesos, commitment to modernize the Philippine military. In recent years, American investments in improving US-Philippine military infrastructure have expanded at Subic Bay and the nine enhanced defense cooperation agreement sites. These select Philippine military bases allow rotationally deployed US forces and American-funded projects.
Amidst the tensions generated by China's development of artificial islands in the South China Sea, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) plan to rehabilitate the air and naval facilities in Subic Bay Freeport in the western part of the mainland island of Luzon. Subic Bay, a deep-water harbor located 50 miles northwest of Manila facing the South China Sea, was the service and logistics center for the US 7th Fleet until November 1992. Across the bay at Subic Bay International Airport, a similar story unfolded as the Philippines examined what facilities could be useful in their new military plans. Philippine Air Force documents on the project directly cited the proximity of the airfield to Scarborough Shoal and the South China Sea as the reason for the construction of the forward operating base. The Armed Forces of the Philippines has identified Subic Bay International Airport as a staging point for joint air-sea-land operations under its strategic basing plan, which aims to identify points across the country's vast archipelago to support and project forces beyond territorial waters and into Manila's exclusive economic zone. Heat. Heat.