Manila, Sept. 17 -- The Philippines is returning to large-scale government-funded mapping of its oil and gas basins after about four decades, betting nearly PHP2.8 billion on new geophysical data to lure explorers back to areas once considered promising for natural gas.

During the Senate hearing on the Department of Energy's (DOE) proposed 2027 budget Thursday, officials said the Philippine Gradiometry and Seismic Survey Project will cover about 120,000 square kilometers in the Agusan-Davao and Visayan basins.

DOE Undersecretary Alessandro Sales said the last comparable government data-acquisition campaign was undertaken in the 1980s with financing from the World Bank.

"(It's a) milestone that after so many decades, we are again invest...