PTTEP's Oil, Gas Investment Plans on Track

PTT Exploration and Production Plc (PTTEP) has said that its $20-billion investment over five years is on course despite the euro-zone debt crisis and declining oil prices, Bangkok Post has reported.

The company in January has announced its plans to allocate $20 billion for exploration and production worldwide from 2012-16.

Of the budget, 55% will be invested in domestic oil and gas resources and 45% in expansion abroad, mainly in Myanmar, where the company plans to invest almost $2 billion, the newspaper reported.

The Zawtika field, at the offshore Block M9 in the Gulf of Martaban, is on track to come onstream next year, with initial output of 300 million cubic feet per day. Thailand will be supplies with 240 million cfpd and the rest will go to Myanmar.

The output from the Zawtika field will raise Thailand's natural gas imports from Myanmar to between 1.2 and 1.3 billion cfpd including from the nearby Yadana and Yetagun fields.

Myanmar has an estimated 3.2 billion barrels of oil and 18 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves and now supplies a quarter of Thailand's gas.