Phnom Penh Post
LAST week marked the arri-val and passing of 12/12/12, the Cambodian
government’s original date for the comm-encement of oil extraction from
the Block A oilfields in the Gulf of Thailand, with no activity on the
site.
Chevron currently holds a 30 per cent interest in the block,
according to a fact sheet on its website, which also says government
approval and a final investment decision are expected to be finalised by
the end of 2012.
Asked about the progress of exploration efforts at the site, and if a
new date had been decided, Chevron media adviser Alexander Yellend
said: “We continue to work with the Royal Government of Cambodia to
obtain project approvals to achieve a final investment decision at the
earliest possible date.”
According to Men Den, deputy director-general of the Cambodian
National Petroleum Authority, Block A is still in the development phase
and a lot needs to be done before moving to the production stage.
The legal framework, financial regulations, technical details and an
economic analysis needed to be finalised before a final investment
decision (FID) was made, he said.
“This [a final investment decision] point is waiting on everything
else to be finished. When the FID is finished, we can give a real date
for the first oil drop offshore.”
At the same time, the government is still in negotiations with
Thailand on the Overlapping Claims Area (OCA) in the Pattani Trough in
the Gulf of Thailand.
Martin McCarthy, the managing director of Total Cambodge, which holds
a condit-ional licence for Area III of the OCA, said the company was
waiting on the two governments to decide how they wanted to treat the
situation.
“We understand progress is being made on both sides, but
unfortunately we don’t know, and we cannot give any estimation of, what
time such an agreement might come to pass,” McCarthy said.
“The suggestion has been made to set up a joint development area,
then exploit the resources in a sharing manner, but we still need to see
what will happen next.”
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