Resources from overlapping claims area excluded from energy plan
As talks with Cambodia yet to begin, Energy Ministry to focus on exploration in Andaman Sea
The Energy Ministry has decided to exclude gains from the overlapping claims area (OCA) in the Gulf of Thailand from the National Energy Plan 2024, as talks with Cambodia over joint exploration are yet to take off, a news source familiar with the matter said on Friday.
Energy Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga is currently setting up a panel to revise the National Energy Plan 2024, especially regarding the Power Development Plan (PDP), which requires several adjustments to suit the current situation, the source said.
The National Energy Plan 2024 covers five areas: the PDP, the Alternative Energy Development Plan (AEDP), the Energy Efficiency Plan (EEP), Gas Plan, and Oil Plan.
The source said resources from the OCA should help Thailand reduce the import of LNG for electricity generation.
Thailand and Cambodia have made overlapping claims over a 27,000-square-kilometre territory in the Gulf since the 1970s. The OCA is believed to contain about 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 300 million barrels of crude oil.
Now that the OCA resources are out of the picture, the ministry will focus on studying the petroleum exploration in plots 25-26 of the Andaman Sea, bordering Indonesia instead, the source said.
The ministry expected the bid for the Andaman exploration project to start in the first quarter of 2025, said the source, adding that several companies had already expressed their interest, including Chevron, Total, and PTT Exploration and Production.
The source said the preliminary survey in 2005 found that the plots were full of petroleum resources, but the project was shelved then as drilling beneath the deep-sea level was not cost-effective. However, with modern technology, it would be possible to drill deeper into the sea and extract the resources in five years.
