Offshore staff
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Petroleum Authority of Thailand has revived interest in Indonesia's Natuna D-Alpha natural gas field and has called on Malaysia and Vietnam to join in the development effort.
"We see that both countries' governments have shown interest in this field; so it may be a chance to do business together," theBangkok Post quoted PTT senior executive vice-president Chitrapongse Kwangsukstith.
Natuna D-Alpha holds an estimated 173 tcf of natural gas. Though PTT expressed interest in the field about 10 years ago, it decided not to pursue development because it was then not viable for operations due to the field's 70% CO2 content, which makes it technologically challenging to extract the gas. According to PTT, about 45 tcf of gas is producible.
With Southeast Asia running short of gas, PTT has decided it is time to reevaluate developing the field. PTT has a 2,000-km (1,243-mi) plan to link the Natuna D-Alpha field to its pipeline grid in the Gulf of Thailand. One reason Thailand is willing to take the lead in developing the field is that the country's domestic gas consumption is forecast to double by 2011 from the current 3.2 bcf/d (500,000 boe/d).
PTT is working on a several regional and intra-regional oil and gas projects with the Malaysian national oil company, Petronas, the Vietnam State Oil and Gas Corp, PetroVietnam, and Indonesian state oil and gas enterprise, Pertamina.
7/21/2007
