Page 6 - AsianOil Week 35

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PTT seeks Middle Eastern partners
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
THAILAND’S state-run PTT is in talks with Middle Eastern oil and gas producers to help meet the Southeast Asian country’s grow- ing energy demand, company CEO Chansin Treenuchagron has said.
e executive told Bloomberg Television on August 29 that the talks could see PTT nalise partnerships within the next few years.
“We need crude and we maybe need explo- ration in some countries in the Middle East,” Chansin said, “because we need supply for ai- land and Asian markets.”
Chansin did not say whom PTT was in talks with, but added that any partnership would have to be in line with PTT’s vision.
ailand’s crude and condensate production slid 0.3% year on year in 2018 to 485,000 barrels per day of in 2018, according to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2019, while consumption climbed 1.3% to 1.48mn bpd. The Middle East supplies around 60% of the country’s oil imports.
is is not the rst time that Chansin has spoken about deepening his company’s energy ties with the Middle East. Speaking on the sidelines of the Asia Oil and Gas Conference in June, Chansin told Reuters his company might sell its non-Middle Eastern assets a er its recent acquisition of Partex Holding in order to focus on the region.
PTT’s upstream arm, PTT Exploration and Production (PPTEP), announced earlier that month that it had paid $622mn for a 100% stake in Partex, which in turn held a 2% stake in state- run Petroleum Development Oman (PDO). e Oman government owns 60% of PDO, while Royal Dutch Shell holds 34% and Total has the remaining 4%.
e company said at the time that the acquisi- tion paved the way for future investment oppor- tunities in the Middle East. Partex produces 16,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) from assets in Oman, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kazakhstan.
In terms of PTT’s plans closer to home, Chan- sin said the company was preparing for a structural shi away from crude oil and was investing in natu- ral gas production and power generation. “We aim to be the centre of gas in this region,” he said.
A day a er his comments, PTT revealed that it had been picked to develop a gas- red power plant in Myanmar’s New Yangon City. e pres- ident and CEO of PTT unit Global Power Syn- ergy Co. (GPSC), Chawalit Tippawanich, said New Yangon Development Co. (NYDC) had awarded the contract.
“For the later steps, the PTT Group will further discuss the details and talk with GAIL (India), which won the contract for sourcing natural gas for the development of the New Yangon project. PTT will require the natural gas supplied by GAIL for the development of the project,” Chawalit said. “It is too early to disclose details of the project, as discussions between all parties are pending. e production of electricity must take into account the demand for electricity in the area, both in house- hold and industrial sectors.”™
OVL seeks extension to block offshore Vietnam
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
INDIA’S state-run ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) has reportedly sought a two-year extension to a block o shore Vietnam, which partly lies in waters claimed by China.
OVL, the overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), applied for a sixth extension to its exploration licence for deepwater Block 128 in May ahead of a June 15 expiry, newswire PTI quoted unnamed company o cials as saying on September 2.
“We have a commitment to drill one well on the block and to ful ll that we have sought an extension,” one source said. Another added that
the company had drilled a well in 2017, it had not reached target depth and a new one would need to be drilled or OVL would be “liable to pay pen- alties”. e sources added that Hanoi was likely to extend the licence.
OVL has reportedly invested around $51mn in the block, which covers 7,058 square km of the Phu Khanh Basin, but has failed to nd oil or gas there. Nevertheless, the acreage holds strategic value for the Indian government.
Part of Block 128 lies within China’s nine- dash line claim to the South China Sea, which encompasses more than 90% of the sea. Beijing’s
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