Chevron to spend $4bn in region

Yuthana Praiwan, Bangkok Post

Chevron Corporation says it will invest a total of US$4 billion in upstream petroleum activities in nine countries in the Asia-Pacific region, with Thailand receiving the largest share.

The US-based oil company will expand activities in seven countries where it already has operations: Bangladesh, Burma, China, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

New offshore projects are planned in Vietnam and Cambodia, according to Joseph Geagea, managing director of the company's Asia South Business Unit.

However, the main activity would be in Thailand, Indonesia and Australia, he said.

The region's largest gas and oil producer said the Asia-Pacific budget accounted for 20% of the group's global upstream investment budget.

Mr Geagea said the region's demand for oil and gas had been growing rapidly for several years, making it the world's largest consumer with a 23% share of global oil and gas demand of 133 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) in 2005, equal to the United States.

Asia-Pacific demand is expected to meet 29% of world demand in 2030, forecast at 199 million boed.

Tara Tiradnakorn, president of Chevron Thailand's exploration and production unit, said upstream natural gas exploration in Thailand required an investment of $3.1 billion from this year to 2022 for additional output of 740 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) in 2012, compared with 500 mmcfd last year.

Its major resources in Thailand will come from the 330-mmcfd Platong 2 field and the remaining 170 mmcfd from existing platforms in the Gulf of Thailand.

Chevron last year produced 1,638 mmcfd of gas, representing 48% of the total supply in the country.

Net daily production of oil and gas was 224,000 boed from its 20 sites in the Pattani Basin in the Gulf of Thailand.

In Indonesia, the group will develop a deep-water gas project at the Gehem and Gendolo fields, while it will also expand crude production at North Duri, its largest field in Indonesia.