<article><a style="color: #000080" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=PXP+Energy+Corp" target="_blank">PXP Energy Corp</a>, an upstream oil and gas company in the Philippines, has increased its interest in UK-based <a style="color: #000080" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Forum+Energy" target="_blank">Forum Energy Ltd</a> which has the license to oil and gas exploration in the disputed waters between China and the Philippines.</article>

<a style="color: #000080" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=PXP+Energy+Corp" target="_blank">PXP Energy Corp</a>, an upstream oil and gas company in the Philippines, has increased its interest in UK-based <a style="color: #000080" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Forum+Energy" target="_blank">Forum Energy Ltd</a> which has the license to oil and gas exploration in the disputed waters between China and the Philippines.
PXP disclosed on Thursday (March 23) that it has increased its direct shareholding in Forum Energy from 48.8 per cent to 69.5 per cent, and an indirect ownership of 8 per cent through a 54.99 per cent-owned subsidiary, FEC Resources.
Based on the transaction, PXP acquired 39,350,920 new ordinary shares of Forum Energy priced at $0.30 per share or a total of $11.805 million.
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The latest acquisition was funded through the conversion into equity of a portion of PXP&#8217;s $18.3 million loan to a subsidiary of Forum Energy. Formerly Philex Petroleum Corp, PXP is a subsidiary of another local public company <a style="color: #000080" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Philex+Mining+Corp" target="_blank">Philex Mining Corp</a>.
Forum’s principal asset is a 70 per cent interest in Service Contract 72 (SC72), an 8,800-sq km offshore petroleum licence situated west of Palawan Island in the West Philippine Sea, which is the disputed waters between Philippines and China.
SC72, also called the Recto Bank, is estimated to contain prospective resources of natural gas and oil.
PXP&#8217;s acquisition of additional shares in Forum Energy did not result in a change in the board of the UK-incorporated oil and gas exploration and production company.
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Hong Kong-based Tidemark Holdings Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Philippine-listed mining and energy company <a style="color: #000080" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Atok" target="_blank">Atok-Big Wedge Co Inc</a>, subscribed to 6,666,667 shares of Forum last Wednesday amounting to $2 million, paid for in cash. As a result of these transactions, Tidemark’s holdings in Forum decreased from 27.1 per cent to 20 per cent.
All parties, PXP, Forum Energy, Tidemark and Atok are all waiting for the upliftment of the moratorium on the oil and natural gas exploration in SC72 by the Department of Energy (DOE), which was issued in March 2015.
DOE, on the other hand, is awaiting the guidance that will be released by the Department of Foreign Affairs where it will based its decision on whether to keep or uplift the ban on oil exploration in the disputed territory.
PXP&#8217;s last trading price increased 4.79 per cent or P0.140 to close at P3.06 per share on Friday (March 24).
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Philippines: PXP increases control interest in Forum Energy

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