Geothermal energy could help protect the Philippines from looming energy security risks linked to the conflict brought about by the war on Iran trigged by the United States and Israel’s attacks, according to the country’s Department of Energy (DOE) secretary Sharon Garin.
“We look forward to the next chapter, one where geothermal continues to secure our energy future and strengthen our economy… Even if there is a war raging in the Middle East, geothermal will never fail us, because this is ours,” Garin said in her keynote speech at the celebration of renewable energy firm First Gen Corporation (First Gen) for its subsidiary Energy Development Corporation (EDC).
Global crude oil prices have spiked on the back of the Middle East war. The Philippines is among the hardest hit Southeast Asian economies because it imports almost all of its oil from the region, whereas consumers in Indonesia, Thailand, and India remain partly insulated because fuel subsidies and regulated prices absorb some of the cost, said economists.
In contrast, ordinary people in the Philippines will suffer a sharper inflation blow from higher oil prices, as market‑driven fuel pricing and limited government subsidies will put more direct pressure on consumers to absorb the costs.
More than 1.2 million households in Philippine island communities and off-grid areas face an increased risk of power outages due to the surge in oil prices, said advisors from Climate Smart Ventures.
More than 90 per cent of the Philippines’ oil imports come from the Middle East. Image: United Nations, WTO
Francis Giles Puno, president and chief operating officer of First Gen, noted how geothermal is essential to the country’s long term energy security because of its use of “indigenous strength over import-dependent pricing volatility.”
“Geothermal [energy] provides that stability. It runs twenty-four hours a day. It operates independent of weather, season, or sun in the daylight, and it reduces exposure to imported fuel and global volatility,” Puno said in his speech at the same event.
Despite geothermal energy being cited as a reliable renewable energy resource in the backdrop of geopolitical tensions, exploration in the Philippines has slowed mainly because the remaining resources are riskier, more expensive, and harder to access, First Gen has said previously. Exploration drilling can cost around US$6 to 8 million per well with no guarantee of success, making early‑stage geothermal projects far riskier than utility‑scale solar or wind ones.
However, Garin highlighted how the goverment has spearheaded a US$170 million de-risking facility to accelerate early-stage geothermal exploration in the country, launched last December. A deal signed between DOE and state-owned Landbank operationalised the Philippine Geothermal Resource De‑Risking Facility (PGRDF), which is backed by a sovereign loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
“We are sharing risk. Geothermal exploration is high cost and high uncertainty, that is why we are moving forward with our Filipino geothermal resource de-risking facility,” she said.
The Philippines held the second ranking of the top countries in installed geothermal power capacity for many years before it was overtaken by Indonesia in 2018. The DOE chief said she hopes that the facility will help the country regain its previous spot.
An ADB report published in 2024 estimated that total exploration costs for 10 potential geothermal fields would amount to about US$212-262 million. Within those figures, around US$79 million would be needed to advance the 10 fields to pre‑feasibility, and another US$133-183 million to complete full exploration and feasibility assessments, it read.
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