By Myrna M. Velasco The consolidated net loss of PXP Energy Corporation had expanded to P39.1 million in 2017; from a leaner P22.4 million the year before – mainly due to non-advancement yet of its petroleum exploration ventures. On the company’s reported consolidated net loss, that had been higher at P57.1 million from where it was at a lower level of P36.4 million in 2016. Nevertheless, the company emphasized that its revenues had already gone slightly higher to P104 million last year from a scale it logged in 2016 at P101.6 million. It explained that the slim revenue hike had been due to the “24-percent improvement in crude oil price offset by 18-percent lower crude production.” Further, the oil exploration firm emphasized that its consolidated cost and expenses declined by 7.4-percent to P158.2 million from P170.8 million in 2016. Such cost reduction, it was explained, had been “brought about by lower petroleum production cost and depletion, and continuous cost containment of group overhead.” PXP Energy, in parallel, has noted that its net loss remained higher “despite the reduction in loss from operations due to foreign exchange loss of P0.1 million vis-à-vis foreign exchange gain last year of P13.4 million. The company has several investment interests on oil and gas exploration ventures in the Philippines and offshore, but the lingering low-cost price environment in the global oil sector still weighs down on its overall financial performance. In the Philippines, the company’s prospective major squeeze in the Recto Bank service area is still hurdled by diplomatic concerns that the government has been trying to resolve with China. Drilling in that block had been suspended since 2013 because of the moratorium on all petroleum exploration activities enforced by the Department of Foreign Affairs along the so-called “areas of conflict”– a step that was done in coordination with all other relevant government agencies.