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Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline project to go ahead |
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| THAILAND: July 9, 2002 | ||
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BANGKOK - A controversial Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline project will go ahead despite strong protests from villagers and environmentalists, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on the weekend.
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Thaksin said the Thai government had assured the Malaysian government that a long-delayed construction of the 30 billion baht ($722.5 million) pipeline would fully start and the re-routing would have "no significant" impact on the cost. "The project will be fully geared," Thaksin said after meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on a three-day official visit to Thailand. "Malaysia is worried about some issue. (Industry) Minister Suriya (Jungrungreangkit) confirmed that the re-routing will increase the investment cost by no more than $5 million, which is not key point," Thaksin said. An official who attended the meeting told reporters that the Thai government expected to sign a construction contract within this month. The Trans-Thai Malaysia 366-km (230-mile) gas pipeline is due to bring gas from the Thai-Malaysia Joint Development Area in the Gulf of Thailand onshore to southern Thailand and on to Kedah state in northern Malaysia. JDA gas originally was due to start flowing in the third quarter this year, but construction of the line has been delayed from early 2001 by fierce opposition from environmentalists and villagers in Songkhla where it was due to come onshore. The Thai government in May decided to re-route the pipeline, taking it over land belonging to the Thai navy and away from local fishing villages. Malaysian authorities had threatened to re-route Malaysia's share of Gulf of Thailand gas if Bangkok kept stalling approval. Thailand's state-run PTT Plc and Malaysia's Petronas are joint operators of the proposed pipeline project.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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