Pipeline from the Gulf of Thailand to Malaysia would probably start in two years time
Date: 24-Sep-02
Country: JAPAN
Hassan Marican, Petronas president and CEO, said Petronas was bringing onstream gas reserves from domestic fields to counter any hole in supply to Malaysia. The pipeline was originally due to begin gas supplies in the third quarter this year.
"In about two years time," Hassan said when asked the timeframe for the project to come onstream.
"It doesn't have any major impact on our supply commitments that we orginally forecast. We are also bringing up additional gas reserves from domestic fields to take the slack as a result of the delay," he told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry symposium in Osaka, Japan.
The Trans-Thai Malaysia 366-km (230-mile) gas pipeline is due to bring gas from the Gulf of Thailand onshore to southern Thailand and on to Kedah state in northern Malaysia.
Construction of the 30 billion baht project has been delayed since early 2001 by fierce opposition from environmentalists.
The Thai government decided in May to re-route the pipeline five km (three miles) from the planned site to lessen opposition, and has mounted a public relations campaign to promote the plan.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has insisted that the pipeline would go ahead although fresh protests erupted earlier this month with calls for more delays for proper studies of the environmental impact.
Hassan noted that the pipeline had received approval by the Thai government. "We are now in the process of implementing the downstream part of the project. The upstream (production platform) is ready," he said.
Thailand's state-run PTT Plc and Petronas hold equal stakes in Trans Thai-Malaysia Co (TTM), the developer of the pipeline and separation plant scheme.
