Plan set for pipeline networks expansion
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THE GOVERNMENT will issue a regulatory framework to promote the construction of gas and oil pipeline infrastructure by next year, Energy Minister Narongchai Akrasanee said yesterday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the “World National Oil Companies Congress Asia” held in Bangkok, Narongchai told reporters natural gas had been offered “everywhere” in Thailand despite a small pipeline infrastructure.
“We have been a slave of gas because of an extreme populist policy that causes us to find ways to solve it afterward. But it’s difficult, since the public has been getting used to it for many years,” said Narongchai, apparently referring to subsidies for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas for vehicles (NGV). “Now, everywhere we go, we will see signs inviting us to use gas, despite the fact there is no gas pipeline [linking to the gas station].
“If we will be a ‘gas society’, [more] pipelines have to be built, or we will have to delay some consumption.
“I would like to insist that if we want to continue using gas [for vehicles], we must have [more] pipelines,” he said.
The military government has been raising the retail prices of LPG and NGV to reflect their costs better, as part of its energy-sector reform plan.
PTT, which runs NGV and LPG filling stations, has been the sole investor in Thailand’s gas-pipeline network. Narongchai declined to elaborate on details of the regulatory framework, saying only that “within one year, we will issue a [regulatory] regime for both gas and oil pipeline networks”.
Speaking at the Oil Companies Congress, Pailin Chuchottaworn, chief executive of PTT, said he believed the “golden era of gas” was arriving, thanks to the booming Asian economies and their growing use of liquefied natural gas, and a growing concern about environmental impacts.
“Time is running out fast for oil. Gasbased economies will flourish,” he said.
Reflecting his optimism on the future of petrochemical industry, Pailin said polyurethane, fibrereinforced plastic and bioplastics would be the three “holy grails” of the petrochemical industry.
