Public to be allowed to see pipelin

[nyeinchan@xxxxxxxx]

January 2, 1998

Bangkok Post 

Public to be allowed to see pipeline
The Petroleum Authority of Thailand is ready to allow the public to
monitor its laying of the Yadana gas pipeline for environmental impact
assessment, according to PTT public relations chief Songkiat Tansamrit.

Mr Songkiat said the PTT was willing to invite non-government
organisations and people rejecting the project to prove that the PTT had
tried every way to minimise the negative impact of the project on
wildlife and trees in 45 rai of forests.

The protesters should find out the facts before deciding whether to carry
on their protest against the project, which would produce 3,500 megawatts
of power per day, almost twice that from all dams nationwide, he added.

The PTT will lay the 260-km pipeline through only a six-kilometre stretch
of lush forest and decrease the width of the construction site from 20
metres to 12 metres, Mr Songkiat said.

Under the PTT's plan to conserve valuable plants, staff of Kasetsart
University's Faculty of Forestry, the Forestry Department and many local
officials had already removed more than 3,000 trees from the site and
would transplant them to nearby areas, he added.

Concerning fears that wild animals may plunge into a three-metre ditch in
which the pipeline will be laid, he said slopes will be made at both ends
of the stretch to allow wildlife to climb up if they plunge into the
ditch.

Earlier, an academic and NGOs in the North called for a boycott of all
products and services of the PTT, the United States' Unocal and France's
Total in protest against the project.