Thailand’s national oil and gas company PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) has boosted gas production from multiple fields in the Gulf of Thailand to alleviate the impact of electricity costs, meet the rising energy demand, and strengthen the country’s energy security.
The ramp-up of the gas production to 800 million cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) from the G1/61 project – covering the Erawan , Platong , Satun , and Funan fields – in the Gulf of Thailand comes shortly after PTTEP’s CEO presented the company’s readiness to step up gas production at the project by April 1, 2024. The increased gas delivery is expected to help minimize the impact of electricity prices and enhance Thailand’s energy security.
After the Thai player won the bid for the G1/61 project from the Department of Mineral Fuels in 2018, the firm signed the production sharing contract (PSC) in 2019. Once it became the operator, the company put all efforts into scaling up the production rate and improving the integrity of facilities and equipment to ensure safety. Currently, 12 wellhead platforms and subsea pipelines have been installed.
Montri Rawanchaikul , PTTEP’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Increasing natural gas delivery from the G1/61 project has been PTTEP’s priority over the past 2 years. As gas from the Gulf of Thailand is a primary source of energy serving both households and industries, PTTEP, therefore has accelerated all operations to ramp up the production.
“Today, the G1/61 project starts to produce natural gas at 800 MMSCFD. The achievement is attributed to the determination of all employees and supports from the government and related agencies to not only mitigate the impact of energy prices but also sustain energy security for the country.”
In line with this, the company intends to continue its annual work plan by installing eight new wellhead platforms and drilling more than 300 producing wells for the G1/61 project. To this end, investments worth approximately THB 30,000 million or around $830,335 have been set aside for 2024 to carry on the work on the project as one of the primary energy sources for Thailand’s energy security in the long term.
PTTEP is also working on expanding its hydrocarbon resources elsewhere, as confirmed by a trifecta of oil and gas discoveries offshore Malaysia in 2023. Aside from this, the firm is pursuing decarbonization, forging many partnerships to bolster the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, including a recent memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mahidol University.