Daniel Pedersen

Asian Energy

  Bangkok, Thailand

August 16, 2010

Thailand’s oil and gas developer PTTEP says it wants to sell minority stakes in five gas blocks in Burma for which it has exclusive exploration and production licenses. The Thai government-controlled company has 100 percent ownership of the development rights in the blocks, which include the rich M9 in the Gulf of Martaban.

The Thai government-controlled company has 100 percent ownership of the development rights in the blocks, which include the rich M9 in the Gulf of Martaban.

Only two weeks ago, PTTEP signed a deal with Burma’s junta-controlled oil and gas agency, the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), to buy 80 percent of the gas produced from M9.

PTTEP has previously said the block is estimated to hold about 50 billion cubic meters of gas, and could begin delivering more than 8 million cubic meters per day by 2014.

It had been expected that MOGE would take the other 20 percent of the M9 output.

However, this week PTTEP chief executive Anon Sirisaengtaksin said he wants to sell stakes in M9 and the M3, M4, M7 and M11 to “diversify investment risks.”

PTTEP is also seeking to raise capital to help fund a bid for BP’s assets in Vietnam which the British company plans to sell to help pay for Gulf of Mexico oil leak damage.

Industry observers think potential investors in PTTEP’s five Burma blocks will include China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and India’s GAIL and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) companies.

CNOOC expressed interest in buying into the M9 block in 2008.
GAIL and onGC are involved in developing two blocks of the huge Shwe gas field in the Bay of Bengal, most of which is being sold to China.

Thailand seeks to dilute cost of developing Burma gas fields