Government nets Bt102 billion income from Mineral Fuels Department
The Mineral Fuels Department said on Tuesday that it had generated income of Bt103.58 billion for the government in 2021.
Mineral Fuels director-general Sarawut Kaewtatip said the department had received Bt53.637 billion in revenue from oil and gas field concessions and returns from the Thai-Malaysian joint development project.
The remaining Bt49.948 billion revenue came from revenue taxes collected from the oil and gas fields’ concessionaires.
He said his department would this year call for bids for oil and gas prospecting firms to survey three more fields in the Gulf of Thailand – G1/65 field with 8,487.20 square-kilometre area, G2/65 field (15,030.14 square kilometres) and G3/65 field (11,646.67 square kilometres).
Sarawut said the new projects were yet to be approved by Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow before the bids would be called.
The department expects the new fields would compensate for the declining crude oil and gas reserves.
Sarawut said the department estimated investments of about Bt1.5 billion in the new fields, and natural gas and oil from the new sites could be sold within 2026.
Sarawut said the department is also coordinating the transfer of the Erawan field of the G1/61 plot from the original concessionaire, Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production Ltd, to the new contractor, PTT Exploration and Production Pcl. The original concession will expire in April 2022. The PTTEP will operate the field under the production sharing contract.
“It’s believed that within one and a half years, the PTTEP will be able to increase its production of natural gas in the Erawan field to 800 cubit fee per day, which will be sooner than the original two-year transitional period,” Sarawut said.
He said the department is also supporting the government’s policy of trying to reduce carbon emission by cooperating with concessionaires and agencies concerned to try the Carbon Capture and Storage technology. The technology is aimed at capturing emitted carbon from oil and gas fields and store it under rock layers under the sea.
