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Bkk articles 13 Sept (part 2)
The Bangkok Post Tuesday September 13, 1004
Business Section
PTTEP PREPARED TO TAKE UP TO 30% STAKE IN BURMA GAS
FIELD
by Boontong Kositchotethana
Rangoon
PTT Exploration & Production Plc (PTTEP), an affiliate of the Petroleum
Authority of Thailand (PTT), will exercise an option to take up to 30% of
the US$800-million Yadana gas field development offshore Burma.
PTTEP president Viset Choopiban confirmed PTTEP's stance in an
interview with Business Post following the conclusion of a landmark
accord for sales of the Yadana gas to Thailand.
Mr Viset said the Thai petroleum exploration concern had "no
problems" with taking a maximum equity participation in the project if
Burma's state energy firm, Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE), elects
not to exercise its option.
MOGE has the option to take up to 15%, in Yadana under the
production-sharing contract with the field's developers Total of France
and the US energy group Unocal Corp which now hold 52.5% and
47.5% interest in the gas structures, respectively.
PTTEP was also given the right to acquire a 25.5% participation option,
a pre-requisite that formed part of the conditions tied to the 30-year
Yadana gas export sales accord reached by the Burmese Government,
the western oil group and the gas buyer, PTT.
If both MOGE and PTTEP elect to participate fully, this would reduce
Total's interest to 31.24% and Unocal's to 28.26%.
"It would be unwise on our part if we didn't take the full option in the
knowledge that a huge gas reserves are lying there and its buyer has
been established," said Mr Viset.
He said recoverable gas reserves at Yadana, some 320 kilometres south
of the Burmese capital in the Gulf of Martaban, had been certified by US
petroleum reservoir engineers DeGolyer & MacNaughton at 5.8 trillion
cubic feet (Tcf) nearly twice the size of the Bongkot gas field in the Gulf
of Thailand.
Investing in the project provides a fairly good 15% internal rate of
return, Mr Viset added. Yadana gas exports to Thailand are estimated to
generate annual sales revenue of about 10 billion baht.
The exact size of the stake PTTEP will hold in Yadana will be known
later this year when the partnership agreement is expected to be signed.
That will take place at the conclusion of the Yadana gas sales agreement
between the PTT and Total group, according to Mr Viset.
Yadana will be the latest most significant asset in the PTT's extensive
interests n the upstream oil and gas sector, mostly in Thailand.
PTTEP's other interests include: 25% of the onshore S1 concession
where the Sirikit oil field is located; a 20% interest in the E5 tract in the
Northeast, where Esso is operating the Nam Phong gas field; 5% stake
in the Unocal III gas-production ventures in the Gulf of Thailand, a 50%,
stake n highly prospective block B5/27 in the Gulf; and 100% ownership
of the PTTEP1 tract in Suphan Buri and Nakhon Pathom where two
marginal oil fields are in production.
It also has a stake in the "Joint Development Area" which covers 7,250
square kilometres, some 260 km east of Songkhla shore, where Thailand
and Malaysia have greed to jointly develop resources and equally share
the wealth.
The tract, believed to contain 3-4 Tcf of gas reserves, will be explored
by the consortium including PTTEP, Petronas Carigali and the US oil
prospecting firm Triton Energy Corp, under modified production-
sharing contracts awarded to them last April.
Mr Viset said the $800-million estimated cost of the Yadana project
included offshore field development and the laying of a 354-km offshore
pipeline to the western coast of Burma, and a 65-km onshore segment
across southern Burma to the Thai border at Pilok, Kanchanaburi .
The line will be linked with a 300-km-plus pipeline to be laid from Pilok to
Ratchaburi where the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand
(EGAT) will build a 2,800-megawatt gas-fired powerhouse.
By the end of this year, Total and Unocal plan to form a subsidiary to
build and operate the pipeline, according to Unocal officials.
Construction of the west-east pipeline is expected to begin in 1995 after
a full evaluation of onshore route options to minimise environmental
impact.
Yadana gas production is expected to start in mid-1998 with delivery at
an initial rate of 130 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd), increasing to
more than 525 MMcfd within 15 months. Gas production could
eventually reach 650 MMcfd, including volumes for Burma's domestic
consumption.
The Nation Tuesday, September 13, 1994
Focus Section
A BRIDGE OF MUSIC
One Karen musician hopes the message in his music will create harmony
from the discord that
exists between the Kingdom's highlanders and lowlanders, reports
Kitchana Lersakvanitchakul.
(PHOTO: MISSIONARY: Leesa on stage at a recent concert by Karen
musicians in Bangkok.)
SINGER Leesa Chuchuenchitsakul has a mission in life: to spread the
truth about Puagayor, or Karen, hill-tribe people.
The Karen singer says he first became inspired to become a musician
four years ago when he realized many Thai people share a number of
misconceptions about hill-tribe people. These misconceptions are often
perpetuated by Thai-language newspapers, which blame the tribes for
numerous ills including the narcotics trade and deforestation.
Such misunderstandings, he believes, stem from communication
problems between lowland Thais and hill-tribe people. Through music
Leesa hopes he can help bring the two groups closer together.
"I would like us [highlanders and lowlanders] to live harmoniously and
peacefully because we are all Thai," said the 36-year-old musician.
Drugs, he said, are an international problem and should not be blamed
on any one group. In the past, he admitted -- before the launch of the
Royal project to persuade hill-tribe villagers to plant vegetables -- it was
the mountain people who grew opium. But it was the lowlanders who
were behind opium trafficking, he said.
"We hill-tribe people are also accused of being involved in
deforestation. In fact, this is not so. The forest is our home, where we
live and eat. We also believe that spirits live in the forest. Hill-tribe
people cut down trees only in order to live. But when development
reached our homes, it was the lowlanders who came to cut the trees
down to sell,'' he said.
Leesa; who is a sitsayaphibarn, or pastor, at a church in Khun Yuam
District of Mae Hong Son province, firmly believes people's problems
should be solved with love, interest and understanding rather than with
speeches and theories.
With this in mind, he compiled the album Khon Phu Doi (The Mountain
People), which was recorded last year. Previously Leesa had recorded
four albums -- two folk and two rock -- with lyrics based on stories from
the Bible.
The nine-track album, Khon Phu Doi, focuses mostly on the Karen
lifestyle, and on the natural beauty of forests and animals. "Most
Puagayor love peace," he stressed.
Leesa wrote the lyrics for the album in Karen, but then had them
translated into Thai for the recording. He didn't want to isolate Thai-
language listeners, he explained. He wanted his music to be accessible
to both Karen and lowlanders, and he wanted Thai people to open their
hearts and ears to Karen songs. However, the album does feature one
Karen-language song, "Puagayor People".
The singer likes to think of himself as a storyteller, telling stories in
rhyme, more than a musician. He doesn't read music and he has never
taken music lessons. He knows only chords used in folk guitar music,
and for this reason Khon Phu Doi sounds very similar to other Thai folk
music.
However, for his newest album, Banthuek Khon Ton Nam (Record of
the Residents of the Watershed), Leesa looked further afield for both
subject matter and musical content.
In the song "Faak Jai" ("Keep My Heart") he sings about two ethnic
groups. the Sakai people from the South and the Mlabri, from the North.
Though they come from opposite ends of the country, he explained,
they actually share many similarities.
Another song, "Khon Phaa Khon" ("Man Cuts Man") depicts the
changing lifestyles of hill-tribe people in the face of "development" and
modern technology. He compares this intrusion to a surgical operation
by which villagers are cut off from their traditional ways of life.
"Kong Faang" ("Haystack") depicts the influence of modern Thai and
Western culture on the way Karen teenagers dress and act. He said
nowadays Karen appear confused about how to wear their traditional
clothes, and sometimes, men wear clothes made for women.
In the past, he continued, children were glad to wear clothes woven for
them by their parents, but today, they are more likely to prefer ready-
made clothes purchased from stores.
More importantly, though, the song shows how family ties are being
destroyed by the invasion of modern culture and technology.
On this new album, Leesa said he also wanted to tell Thai people about
the Daraung, a hill-tribe group living in the Salween region near the
border with Burma. In the song "Dara-ung", he uses Dara-ung-style folk
music and instruments such as ti-na (a plucked string instrument) and
tree leaves, which are blown to produce different notes.
In "Phorlepa", he sings about the 65-year-old Puagayor poet of the
same name, who he calls a good role model for both Puagayor children
and all other Thai people.
In order to attract a wider audience, Leesa has actually recorded two
versions of the new album, one in Thai and the other in Karen. With the
likes of songs-for-life singers Surachai Chanthimathorn and Yuenyong
Opakul, the album also sounds similar to them. The actual style of the
music ranges from songs-for-life to gospel and Karen.
But while Leesa says he enjoys experimenting with different musical
styles, don't expect to find modern pop music on any of his future
albums. He calls it aharn hoo, or "food for the ears", meaning that the
lyrics are senseless, though he admits pop record companies are just
catering to the tastes of listeners.
He also believes there could be a market for hill-tribe folk music if record
companies could just be convinced to take an interest. After all, he said,
ethnic music is quite popular in many Western countries.
More importantly, he said, music is the best way to help hill-tribe
people, because it appeals to people's emotions as well as their minds.
*Proceeds from the sale of the new album will help set up a foundation
to provide medical treatment for hill-tribe people.*
The Nation Tuesday, September 13, 1994
Focus Section
MEETING 0F THE TRIBES
A group of Karen musicians travelled to Bangkok recently to promote
hill tribe culture. Varapom Chamsanit reports.
(PHOTO: Tribal Spokesman: Phorlepa, above, the mountain poet.
Thongdi, left, dressed in tribal clothes performs on stage in Bangkok.)
*We are Puagayor (Karen people).
Having lived on this highland for ages.
Forests and mountains are our friends.
Hawks sing their songs over our land.*
THIS verse, written by Puagayor musician Leesa Chuchuenchitsakul
and sung in the Karen language accompanied by the sounds of
acoustic guitars, is indeed the self-proclamation of the tribal group,
Puagayor, or Karen people, the largest hill tribe in Thailand.
Although various historical sources show that the mountain ranges in
the northern and western regions of what is now Thailand have been
home to the Puagayor several hundred years, very little has been
recorded in formal Thai history about their existence.
Today, the views held by most lowlanders regarding the various hill
tribes are overwhelmingly negative: "Hill-tribe people practice slash-
and-burn farming. " "Hill-tribe people destroy forests." "Hill-tribe
people grow opium plants".
So it was a rare event when, during the first weekend of this month, a
group of Puagayor from the North were given the chance to speak up
and speak their minds to the people of Bangkok during two concerts at
the Saeng Arun Arts Centre. They related their message through verse
and melody.
"We, you and 1, live together in Thailand. Unfortunately, we've never
known each other well enough. I'm glad to have come here [to
Bangkok]. It will give us [Puagayor] the opportunity to show other
people who we are, where and how we live our lives, and what is on our
minds,'' said Phorlepa, 65, a Puagayor poet and rice farmer, his brown
face showing deep wrinkles when he smiled.
The old man, whose numerous Karen poems and stories have been
translated into and published in Thai, had been invited to talk with the
audience at the Puagayor concert, which was titled "Voices of a
Watershed Tribe". This was his second visit to the capital; his first
being 10 years ago when he accompanied his nephew to hospital.
"Bangkok has changed [in the last 10 years]. Cars and buses move more
slowly, like turtles," said the old poet, chuckling softly. "But the city is
just fine. Puagayor people have a saying, 'A frog belongs to its own
hole, and a fish belongs to its own backwater.' It's your home here in
Bangkok. My home is up there on the mountain.
"Ten years ago when I first came here to Bangkok, I knew nobody. I
tried to look at other people's faces but they. didn't look back at all. This
time, many people [attending the concert] have come up and talked to
me. I feel good. I like you people [of Bangkok] because you are humans
just like me.
Thongdi Tupho, a Puagayor musician in his early 40s, appeared to be a
less willing visitor to the capital.
"I find it necessary for us Puagayor to try to communicate with urban
people," said Thongdi, who is also a rice farmer. "If you were to ask
school children throughout the country whether it is hill-tribe people
who destroy forests and are the primary producers of narcotics, they
would probably answer 'yes'. This is what children in our country are
taught about hill-tribe people.
"Authorities are lying to the children by teaching them this," he added.
"The children never have the chance to see with their own eyes how
hill-tribe people live. Consequently, they misunderstand us, thinking we
are not Thai citizens, but trouble-makers and enemies."
Leesa agreed, adding, "Hill-tribe people are blamed for slash-and-burn
farming, which destroys forests. But one thing must be remembered:
We've lived in the forests for hundreds of years, but the forests still
exist. Hill-tribe people believe in ghosts and spiritual beings. We have
our own way of protecting the forests by clinging to these old beliefs."
To say for certain who is destroying the forests, Thongdi said people
need to "dig a foot deeper into the ground", to consider the matter more
thoroughly.
"I don't consider people who cut down trees in order to grow rice for
their own consumption forest destroyers," he said. "Instead, it is those
who cut down trees in order to grow cabbages, not just for their own
consumption, but for commercial purposes who are destroying the
forests. And who is behind all these people if not traders and factory
owners from the lowlands? They promote destructive farming and then
earn a lot from trading the produce."
"We Puagayor have several old rhymes that teach people to look after
the forests well," said Takohae, a Puagayor man who has lived in
Bangkok for 10 years. He recited a short rhyme as an example:
*Little notched-tailed birds,
Eat pipal fruits,
And look after pipal branches.
Little long-tailed birds,
Eat pipalflowers,
And look after pipal trees.*"
"Life on the mountain has changed," remarked the mountain poet
Phorlepa. "People don't grow cotton plants to spin their own yarn any
more. They just buy thread from markets in town to weave into cloth, or
they just buy finished clothes."
Young hill-tribe women these days like to wear trousers, which they
never wore in the past, he said. Also, hill-tribe children now go to
government schools where they are made to speak Thai; thus, they tend
to forget their own dialect, he said. Now, fewer and fewer Puagayor
children can read and write the Karen language.
"I'm tired [of witnessing all these changes]," said Phorlepa. "Deep in my
heart, I don't want to see our young people leave their mountain homes
to work in towns. But I can't stop them."
Tha, Puagayor poetry set to music, has long been used as a medium to
educate young Karen children about things such as social norms and
environmental preservation. But even this has changed.
"Puagayor children don't know much about tha these days," said
Phorlepa. "Without tha, their lives have become confused. Girls are
becoming pregnant now without being married.
"Tha are seeds of love," he continued. "They are tiny but powerful
seeds. Tha are metaphors. You will never hurt people by reciting tha to
them. The ancient poetry ties us together, like brothers and sisters."
Nevertheless, Phorlepa says this trend towards modern ways is starting
to swing back the other way.
"Years ago, our young people liked to listen to modern music, but
nowadays, they are listening more and more to tha. I think they are
turning back [to traditional lifestyles]."
Thongdi expressed similar hopes for reviving the old Puagayor ways.
"In less than five years, I've noticed some positive changes in terms of
tribal culture preservation. Things are getting better, I hope, "he said.
This, he added, was probably because more outsiders from the lowlands
both academics and members of non-government organizations, have
shown a greater interest in the preservation of hill-tribe culture.
Puagayor people are again coming to realize the significance of their
own culture.
"In the recent past, during the time I was growing up, Puagayor
traditions and cultures were in a state of confusion," said Thongdi.
Young Puagayor people at that time did not dress in traditional clothes.
They did not study their own language. They; were not interested in
their own traditions.
"I myself grew up in more of an urban atmosphere than a tribal one," the
singer admitted. Perhaps this is the reason he chose a guitar rather than
a traditional Puagayor instrument when he started touring the
mountains performing concerts some 20 years ago. However, he said, he
still includes some old tha songs in his repertoire.
"I spend my free time singing to hill-tribe people. I talk about two things
in my songs: the dignity of tribal people and the conservation of forests
and the natural environment," he said.
"Some old people listen to my songs and shed tears. They always wish
to say the same things I say; but, they just don't know how to make
their voices heard in this modern world. "
*Roads have been built into our villages.
You daughters are setting off for the city.
The sound of rice-pounding mortars
Will be heard no more.
Red cloaks for young men
And white cloaks for young women,
You won 't wear them now.
Ther and kuay (cloth shoulder bags and bamboo baskets),
You won't carry.
Kwae, Khro and Tenaku (Puagayor musical instruments),
You can play no more.*"
This is an extract from Thongdi's song "The Lost Tribe". In recent years
his medium of expression may have become more high-tech with
Western instruments and amplifiers, but his message remains the same.
By attempting to relate their stories to the outside world, the Puagayor
artists said they hoped each tribal group would be able to maintain their
dignity and peaceful lives. At the same time, they wished different
groups of people, hill-tribes and lowlanders, could learn to live together
with equity and in harmony.