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PTTEP ups investment budgets
FINANCE & INVESTMENT
THAILAND’S state-owned PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) intends to increase its investment budget for 2020 as well as for the next five years.
The company will spend $4.61bn in 2020, up from an estimated $3.58bn this year. Of the 2020 figure, $2.65bn will be capital expenditure, with operating expenditure accounting for the remaining $1.97bn.
PTTEP president and CEO Phongsthorn Tha- visin said $1.94bn of the company’s capex budget would go towards maintaining output at existing fields, $425mn would be invested in increasing production and another $281mn would be spent on discovering contingent resources.
The company has also increased its five-year investment plan, with the company targeting $24.6bn in 2020-2024, up from the $21.35bn for 2019-2023 as announced in July. Of the newest five-year target, the company’s capex budget will account for $14.2bn, while opex will amount to $10.4bn.
Thavisin said average sales volumes from existing assets were expected to expand from a targeted 350,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2019 to 388,000 boepd next year. Sales will continue to grow throughout the five-year
period, before reaching 467,000 boepd in 2024, the executive added.
“Most of the 2020 investment budget will be allocated to pursue the execute strategy in order to maintain volumes in major producing projects, to concentrate on the key development projects so as to start adding new production volumes as planned, and to accelerate explora- tion activities for future reserves addition and sustainable growth of PTTEP,” Thavisin noted.
PTTEP’s upstream focus will lie in maintain- ing production levels at existing projects, includ- ing the S1, Bongkot, Arthit, MTJDA projects in Thailand as well as Zawtika in Myanmar, while also ensuring that production from recently acquired assets remains stable.
PTTEP acquired Partex Holding for $622mn in July, gaining a minor staking in Oman’s larg- est onshore producing asset as well as in other oil and gas projects in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kazakhstan, Brazil and Angola. The company also signed a contract for the Erawan gas field that will see it assume operations there in 2022.
PTTEP pledged earlier this year to invest $32bn in Erawan and Bongkot alone – the two fields are Thailand’s major gas producers.
Iran demands $6bn oil payment from South Korea
EAST ASIA
POLICY
IRAN has demanded a $6bn payment from South Korea for crude oil deliveries made in the past few years, Tasnim news agency reported on December 17, citing South Korean news reports referred to by Bloomberg that quote unnamed government officials.
The South Korean side has, according to daily Chosun Ilbo, reportedly deposited the funds in two South Korean banks, but these have not been trans- ferred to Iran because of US sanctions imposed on the Iranians that bar use of the global financial system. The Iranian Foreign Ministry reportedly called in the South Korean ambassador last month to express “strong regret” over the situation. South Korean officials are said to have explained that they would co-operate with the US to successfully com- plete the financial transfer.
South Korea was one of eight big importers of Iranian oil importers that for several months until May this year were able to import crude from Iran without fear of sanctions thanks to waivers agreed by the US. However, once those
waivers were removed, after Washington opted to pursue a strategy of attempting to push Ira- nian crude exports down to zero, South Korea was forced to wind down its purchases of the commodity and find alternative suppliers. Seoul, highly dependent on US backing in its disputes with North Korea, was quick to comply when it came to ending purchases of Iranian oil and sub- stantially covered the created deficit in supplies by buying US oil, according to various reports.
Financial transactions between Seoul and Tehran for shipments of food and medical items have even effectively run aground since Wash- ington toughened sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) in September, announcing that it required third countries to provide infor- mation on such trade with the Islamic Republic.
The CBI has South Korean won-based accounts at Woori Bank and the Industrial Bank of Korea in Seoul for payments covering oil imports and products that are not subject to sanctions such as food and medicines.
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 50 19•December•2019
