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Bangkok Post: PTT will adhere t
- Subject: Bangkok Post: PTT will adhere t
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 02:54:00
April 15, 1998
ENERGY / YADANA GAS PURCHASES
PTT will adhere to
contract
Pala denies any changes in light of
lower demand
Boonsong Kositchotethana
The head of the Petroleum Authority of Thailand has pledged to
honour the 30-year gas purchase contract made with the Yadana
consortium, ruling out any lowering of the agreed gas delivery
volume and the price.
"We cannot change the established deal [for the Yadana gas
supply from Burma]," PTT governor Pala Sookawesh said,
countering suggestions that the Thai state oil company was
moving to amend the contract because of lower gas demand in
Thailand and the country's economic crisis.
The contract signed in 1995 committed the PTT to taking an
average of 525 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) of gas from
the group led by Total of France starting in July this year at the
base price of US$3 per one million British thermal unit (BTU).
Piti Yimprasert, president of PTT Gas, part of the PTT, was
quoted as saying earlier that the delay in the construction of the
Ratchaburi power house, which would use much of the Yadana
gas, as well as the slower growth in the country's electricity
consumption, might reduce immediate demand for Yadana gas to
325-400 MMcfd.
At least for the time being, it is clear that construction of the first
two units of the Ratchaburi power plant will not be ready to take
the Yadana gas in July as planned. This may also prompt the
PTT to ask the Yadana developing group to delay in start-up of
gas delivery beyond July, may be by one or two months, senior
PTT officials said.
Discussions are expected to be held with the Yadana group
consisting of Total (holding a 31.24% stake in Yadana), the US
energy firm Unocal Corp (28.26%), PTT Exploration &
Production Plc of Thailand (25.5%) and Burmese state-owned
Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise (15%) about delaying gas
delivery.
However, under the accord with the Total alliance, PTT needs to
gradually raise its offtake of Yadana gas to the plateau level of
525 MMcfd only 15 months after the production start-up in
August this year. There is an option for a 15% "swing" increase
in the plateau level if PTT so required.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has deliberately
delayed the construction of 4,600-km Ratchaburi power station
in anticipation of the delay in the completion of the Thai section
of the Yadana gas line, stretching 260 km from the
Thai-Burmese border at Ban I Tong, Kanchanaburi, to the plant.
The commissioning of the first two 200-megawatt gas turbines of
the Ratchaburi plant is now expected to come on line in
September and October this year.
Protests by environmentalists and non-government organisations
in Thailand against PTT's Yadana gas line have delayed
pipe-laying.
The Kanchanaburi-Ratchaburi pipeline has faced opposition
because a six-km section of the line will be laid through the fertile
forest in Kanchanaburi. Opponents had in the past few months
camped out at the forest, specifically at pipeline kilometre posts
27 to 29, to obstruct the pipe-laying.
The pipe laying contractor - the Thai-German joint venture of
Tasco-Mannessmann - has now claimed an additional payment
of US$40 million from PTT since it failed to make the
arrangement for it to complete the works as scheduled. The
claim would push the pipeline project cost beyond the budget of
of 16.5 billion baht.
On March 6, Thai police led by Kanchanaburi governor Direk
Uthaiphol arrested anti-pipeline campaigner Sulak Sivaraksa and
about 50 demonstrators, mostly students, who were blocking the
pipeline construction staging a sit-in at the affected forest at KP
28.
The protesters were dispersed and local authorities moved in to
secure the site. Mr Sulak started his sit-in protest shortly after
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai on February 29 gave a verdict
that laying of the pipeline must continue and other
conservationists be moved out from the protest site.
With the site cleared, the PTT's pipe-laying contractor is now
catching up with the lost time and the state enterprise says it is
reasonably confident of completing pipe-laying in July.
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Last Modified: Wed, Apr 15, 1998