Benham Rise is not subject to any maritime boundary dispute unlike the Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea. People and governments have started to look into this undersea region because of the possible mineral and oil deposits that may be found there. The United Nations affirmed the Philippines’ sovereignty rights over Benham Rise in April 2012. Under Paragraph 1, Article 77 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a state has sovereign rights over its continental shelf for the purpose of “exploring it and exploiting its natural resources.” Several groups in the country like marine experts from DOST and the UP Marine Science Institute have attempted to do research but couldn’t get that deep to the ocean floor. Some teams only managed to stay at the Benham Bank for about five to ten minutes. Studies conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), indicated that Benham Rise has large deposits of methane in solid form. This could turn the Philippines into a natural gas exporter and could make the country one of the richest countries in the world.

De Guzman, S. S. (2018. February 12). Benham Rise. The Philippine Star, p. 14.