PTT working on flood protection measures, calls for govt database

Chief executive officer Pailin Chuchottaworn said yesterday that PTT would also advise the government to collect flood information in all areas to create a database for developing measures to deal with possible floods in the future. 

PTT has already collected data on the flood impact on its businesses to design the flood-protection plan.

Recently 15 PTT Group businesses agreed to help one another in emergencies with support in human resources, tools and materials. One of them will be the main coordinator, which the businesses can contact 24 hours a day. 

PTT has donated about Bt500 million to the government to help flood victims, up from Bt300 million initially set for this contribution.

Chief financial officer Tevin Vongvanich said the flooding had little impact on PTT’s businesses. Only its NGV (natural gas for vehicles) and petrol stations were knocked out of commission, and all were insured. However, indus-trial parks were severely hit, and this has set the economy back for a while, so the government needs to devise flood-prevention measures to restore investor confidence.

Sarun Rungkasiri, senior executive vice president for the oil business, said the flood damage to PTT’s petrol-station assets was Bt80 million, which the company can absorb without difficulty. But PTT needs to readjust its plan to open more stations to take into account the flood factor and flood-prevention measures.