Quick answer to that is I haven't seen it done. But there are often ways of getting around things - rather like applying for a spouse visa....On expense, other cost factors have to be weighed up and if those other costs are low then the bigger costs are more absorbable. New technologies often help with what initially seems the impossible. Of course the availability of alternatives and the price of gas and said alternatives are also factors.
In the Philippines, if it is there in large quantities and at shallow depths then it will be all the more enticing.