Perhatian:

Ada dua rencana dalam mesej ini.

1) Asia Times: Special Report: Trans Thai-Malaysia natural gas project

2) Reuters: Malaysia-Thai offshore gas reserves huge

Sumber: http://www.atimes.com/se-asia/BH05Ae02.html

SPECIAL REPORT The Trans Thai-Malaysia natural gas project

Compiled by Tony Allison

Outline

In 1979 Thailand and Malaysia signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the possibility of jointly developing newfound gas reserves in the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area (JDA). The JDA, 255 kilometers offshore in the Gulf of Thailand, was established to resolve the overlapping claims between the two countries over hydrocarbon resources in the continental shelf.

The JDA is divided into three blocks - Block A-18, Block B-17 and Block C-19, and it is administered by the Malaysian-Thailand Joint Authority (MTJA), of which Malaysia and Thailand each own 50 percent. This body was established in 1990 to oversee and plan for the development of the JDA.

The production contractors for Block A-18 are Petronas Carigali (JDA) Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petronas Carigali of Malaysia, and Triton Oil Company of Thailand, with operations controlled by the Carigali-Triton Operating Company (CTOC). The production contractors for the other two blocks are Petronas Carigali (JDA) Sdn Bhd and PTTEP International Limited, the international arm of the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT), a state-run company.

Petronas and the PTT have agreed on a gas sales and purchase agreement for Block A-18 under which each party will buy gas from the JDA on a 50:50 basis and then bring their respective share of gas back to Malaysia and Thailand. Gas purchases from Block A-18 are expected to amount to 390 million standard cubic feet per day and commercial delivery of gas is scheduled to commence in 2002.

Thailand and Malaysia have committed to a US$2.42 billion contract to share the costs of constructing a 255 kilometer offshore pipeline to transport the gas to Thailand, where it will be purified into sales gas and other fractions at a new gas separation plant (GSP) to be built on the coast at Chana in Songkhla province. Finally, a share of the gas would be piped a further 93 kilometers to the border to link into the Malaysian Peninsular Gas Utilization pipeline at Changlun in Kedah.

The PTT and Petronas have also agreed to explore possible future cooperation for projects in southern Thailand and northern Peninsular Malaysia utilizing the JDA gas.

Since 1984 Pentronas has been implementing a three-phase Peninsular Gas Utilization (PGU) project, an infrastructure development program to process and transmit natural gas fed from the fields offshore Terengganu to end-users in the power, industrial and commercial sectors. The entire PGU system now spans over 1,420 kilometers, comprising main gas transmission pipelines, supply pipelines and laterals. The MTJA project is an important piece of this development.

Because it is a cleaner fuel than oil or coal and not as controversial as nuclear power, gas is increasingly becoming the fuel of choice for many countries. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has made the establishment of a trans-Asean gas pipeline an integral part of its Asean Plan of Action on Energy Cooperation for 1999-2004. The Thai-Malaysian pipeline would play a vital role in the realization of this ambition.

The bigger picture

The southern Thai province of Songkhla, where the gas pipline and the separation plant are planned to be built, is one of the least industrialized regions in the country, with its economy reliant on agriculture and fishing, and to a lesser but important extent, breeding of famed cooing doves.

The government, however, has targeted Songkhla, along with the southern provinces of Pattani, Satun, Narathiwat and Yala, as a new industrial center for the country after the Eastern Seaboard to the east of Bangkok.

Industrialization is seen as the key to fully developing the economic potential of the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT), an Asean initiative to narrow the gap in the levels of development among the 10 member states and to reduce poverty and socio-economic disparities in the region.

Consequently, the Thailand National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), a government agency primarily concerned with setting the country's five-year development plans, commissioned a consultancy to drawn up a "Master and Action Plan for Development of the Penang-Songkhla Economic Zone Through the Utilization of Thailand's Natural Gas Resources".

The plan was prepared jointly with industry, business, and government departments and it proposes a blueprint for using gas to industrialize the south. It spells out proposals to industrialize the five provinces by creating new industrial estates, power plants, a new deep-water port for the area, and a series of "special economic zones".

The trans-Asean gas pipeline (TASG)

There had been a steady increase in the number of gas pipelines in Asean, with about 5,565 kilometers already built and another 7,000 kilometers in the planning stage. ASEAN's domestic consumption of natural gas is approximately 42 million tons of oil equivalent, 71 percent of which is used for power generation.

A master plan "Study on Natural Gas Development and Utilization in Asean" conducted by the Asean-EC Energy Management Training and Research Center projects that demand will reach between 11.3 billion cubic meters per year (BCMY) to 12.8 BCMY in 2000. This will further increase to between 38 BCMY and 69 BCMY in 2020.

The report notes that on completion of the TASG, the region's dependence on imported energy can be reduced substantially, and a shift from coal and petroleum will serve to avoid emission problems. Asean has called for the establishment of a task force and the formulation of a new master plan to help speed up the process.

The IMT-GT

The IMT-GT is one of several Asean programs to develop the region, the others being the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle (IMS-GT), and the inter-state areas along the West-East Corridor (WEC) of the Mekong Basin in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Northeastern Thailand within the Asean Mekong Basin Development Cooperation scheme. Other zones of economic cooperation in Southeast Asia include the Sub-Continental Economic Cooperation (SEC) and the Economic Cooperation in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).

Established in 1994, the IMT-GT or the "Northern Triangle" encompasses about 25 million people. It includes the territory of Aceh and provinces of Riau, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra in Indonesia; the states of Perlis, Kedah, Pulau Pinang, and Perak in Malaysia; and the provinces of Satun, Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala, and Songkhla in Thailand.

The areas in which IMT-GT countries cooperate are trade and customs, finance and investment, sea and air linkages, land transportation, agriculture and fisheries, human resource development, tourism, energy, and telecommunications. Already, transportation has improved with the formation of new air linkages, cruise, shipping, and hauling services. Reduced telecommunication fees in the IMT-GT zone have facilitated increased business transactions in the agricultural produce, marine product, and electronic good sectors.

The private sector largely drives these efforts, while the governments of the three countries encourage investment efforts and joint projects. The governments, therefore, have begun easing and harmonizing rules and regulations relating to trade, investment, and transportation. With this support, the private sector has succeeding in developing 48 joint venture projects, totaling about US$4 billion.

Indonesian officials say that because Indonesia's national economic policy tends to emphasize its advantage in agriculture-based activities, the IMT-GT is seen as a good vehicle to develop the other resource-based industries that are part of the IMT-GT.

Thailand plans, as outlined above, to develop industrial estates as production bases to reach its development goals for both estates and triangles.

Malaysian officials report increased movement of labor and capital within IMT-GT borders as neighbors have invested in Malaysia's food-processing, wood-processing, and textile facilities. Malaysia's private sector has invested in 14 industrial buildings (primarily textile factories) in Indonesia's Medan industrial estates, hotels in Medan, and a cold storage facility in Aceh. Malaysian companies have also facilitated trading activities and promoted joint tourism packages.

A feasibility study prepared by the Asia Development Bank (ADB) in 1993 found:

• High economic growth rates in the three countries, especially in the past decade.
  

• By integrating the three countries they would benefit from economies of scale.
  

• Each area is endowed with resources, natural resources, human resources, and dynamism.
  

• Each area had the potential to benefit from comparative advantages in complimentary industries, such as tourism, fishery, agrobusiness, capital, energy, industry relocation, trade, and human resources:

- Northern Malaysia has Penang and Langkawi as growth centers in industry and tourism.

- Southern Thailand, with Phuket and Hat Yai as its centers, are developed in industry and tourism.

- Northern Sumatera, with Medan, Banda Aceh, and Padang as growth centers, have abudant human resources and natural resources, and they have the potential to become economically strong in tourism, agrobusiness and agroindustry.

The ADB proposed economic cooperation in six areas: agriculture, industry and trade, investment, infrastructure, human resources development and finance. It found that the success of the IMT-GT would be largely determined by two factors:

• The ability of the private sector to perform as the driving force and to take initiatives.
  
  

• The responsiveness of the government sector to function as a facilitator,
  

  particularly in the form of political commitment and action, policy coordination, provision of infrastructure and sufficient delegation of authority to the provincial government.

The project

Triton, an Amercian oil company, has discovered four natural gas fields in Block A-18 of the JDA, covering 295,832 hectares, -- Cakerawala, Suriya, Bulan and Bumi. Triton estimates the resource base to be 10.6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas. The first production from the JDA is planned from the Cakerawala field.

The Cakerawala well discovered oil in relatively shallow zones, which flowed on test at 3,000 barrels per day. Like the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Thailand offers favorable conditions for hydrocarbon drilling and development, and production facilities used in the two locales are similar.

In April 1998, Triton signed a Heads of Agreement for the sale of natural gas production from Block A-18. Gas deliveries under the first phase of the multiphase project are expected to generate about US$5.5 billion in sales. Triton estimates its share of these sales will average approximately 30 percent.

The agreement specified a formula for determining the price for gas delivered at the platform. Under the formula, the base price is US$2.30 per million British thermal units (MMBtu). The actual sales price, which will be calculated and payable in US dollars, will be adjusted annually by a formula that includes US dollar-denominated inflation and fuel-oil price indices. According to this formula, the price, if calculated in April 1998 , would have been US$2.56 per MMBtu.

The sellers have granted the buyers a five percent price discount after the delivery of 500 billion cubic feet, which should occur during the fourth year of production. The price discount will be increased to 10 percent after a cumulative delivery of 1.3 trillion cubic feet. The discounts are intended to give the buyers incentives to increase their purchases.

The buyers of the gas are the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) and Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) of Malaysia on a 50/50 basis. In addition to Triton, sellers of the gas are Petronas Carigali (JDA) Sdn. Bhd., a subsidiary of Petronas, and the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority, the statutory body representing Thailand and Malaysia in the JDA petroleum operations.

Other significant agreement terms

• Delivery of a daily contract quantity of 390 million cubic feet of gas per day (expected to equal approximately 372 billion Btu per day) is scheduled to begin with first-phase development in the first half of 2001 and to continue for at least 20 years.
  

• The agreement includes a take-or-pay provision that specifies the buyers must take a minimum of 90 percent of the daily contract quantity, and the sellers must be able to deliver a maximum of 110 percent of the daily contract quantity.
  
  

• Gas will be transported via pipelines to Thailand and Malaysia. The buyers are responsible for the construction and operation of pipelines to transport the gas from Block A-18.
  

• The agreement encompasses the purchase of all Block A-18's natural-gas resource base, which Triton estimates to be 10.6 trillion cubic feet of gas.
  

• Should there be excess gas, it can be sold to other parties.
  

Carigali-Triton Operating Company (CTOC), the operator of Block A-18, in March 2000 picked a consortium comprising Technip of France, South Korea's Samsung and Italy's Saipen for the the engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) turnkey project. It covers three wellhead platforms, a compression platform, a central-processing production platform, a subsea pipeline, two intrafield lines and a floating storage and offloading unit (FSO). The letter of award for the contract was more than US$600 million.

Saipen is a subsidiary of the Eni Group, an integrated energy company based in Milan which operates in the oil, natural gas, power generation and petrochemicals industries as well as oilfield services and engineering.

Saipen's share of the work, estimated at approximately US$65 million, will cover the project management of the FSO and the engineering and procurement of the mooring system, the FSO installation, the laying of the subsea pipeline and intrafield lines, the installation of the offshore platforms and the carrying out of the commissioning works.

Bechtel, the American engineering-construction organization, has been selected to provide engineering, procurement, and construction management services for the project.

The Trans-Thailand-Malaysia (TTM) Gas pipeline

The pipeline will consist of two parts, estimated to cost US$565 million in total investment. The first section involves an offshore pipeline, 50 kilometers long and 20 inches in diameter, from A-18 to B-17. The second line calls for a 255 kilometer, 30-inch diameter offshore line running eastward from A-18 to Songkhla shore, an 86 kilometer, 30-inch diameter onshore line from Songkhla to the Thai-Malaysian border and another nine kilometer inland connection to the northern Malaysian state of Perlis.

The proposed two-unit gas separation plant near the pipe landing area in Songkhla is expected to cost US$260 million. It will comprise two units each with a natural gas processing capacity of 375-425 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd). Construction of the first unit is scheduled to come on line in 2001 and the second in 2004-2005. Its main output will be LPG which would be distributed in the five southernmost provinces of Thailand and the northern part of the Peninsular Malaysia.

Petronas and the PTT have agreed to incorporate two companies, one in Malaysia and the other in Thailand, on a 50:50 basis. The companies, to be named Trans-Thai-Malaysia (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Trans-Thai-Malaysia (Thailand) Ltd respectively, to build, own and operate the TTM pipeline systems as well as the GSP. The companies share the six senior executives - three from the PTT and three from Petronas. For the first three years the president is from Petronas, and the Chief Executive Officer from PTT - Apisit Rujikiatkamjon.

In Thailand, demand for indigenous natural gas as fuel oil grew by 10.4 percent in the first four months of 2000 to reach 273,800 barrels a day (b/d). Of the total, 195,500 b/d was used for power generation by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), 53,400 b/d were used by Independent Power Producers (IPPs) while Small Power Producers (SPPs) used 24,900 b/d. A further approximately 68,000 b/d was used as fuel, transportation fuel, cooking gas and petrochemical feedstocks. Supply slighltly outweights demand.

Malaysia currently produces about five billion cubic feet of gas per day. As at 1 January, 2000, it had about 84.2 trillion standard cubic feet of gas reserves, placing it 12th in terms of world ranking.

The players

Petronas: Short for Petroliam Nasional Bhd, is Malaysia's national petroleum corporation incorporated on 17 August 1974. It is wholly-owned by the government and is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and entrusted with the responsibility of developing and adding value to these resources.

It has grown into a fully integrated oil and gas entity engaged in a broad spectrum of petroleum and related value-adding business activities in both the upstream and downstream sectors. It has over 100 subsidiaries and associated companies, and the Petronas Group operates in more than 20 countries and it is ranked among the Fortune Global 500 companies.

Petronas is engaged in exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas both at home and abroad. In Malaysia, these activities are undertaken and managed through Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) with a number of international oil and gas companies as well as with subsidiary Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd. The current focus of development is on the various oil and gas fields offshore Peninsular as well as East Malaysia. Petronas has 37 producing oil fields and several others under development.

The Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT): The PTT was founded in 1978 as a state enterprise under the supervision of the Ministry of Industry by the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Act. It is a fully-integrated business, covering exploration and production and natural gas, which is done through PTT Gas, refining, which is done through subsidiaries, downstream oil, through PTT Oil, PTT International and subsidiaries, and petrochemicals, through subsidiaries. It has subsidiaries in the Philippines, China, Myanmar and Vietnam

Triton: Formed in 1962 in Dallas, Texas, Triton has participated in the discovery of several major oil and natural-gas fields around the world. Among Triton's notable discoveries are the Cusiana and Cupiagua oil fields in Colombia, and the natural gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand.

In addition to these major projects, Triton is actively exploring for oil and gas in Latin America, southern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

The issues

Under Thailand's environmental laws and the Constitution, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) has to be conducted and a public hearing must take place before large scale industrial developments such as the gas pipeline before they can proceed. The PTT agreed with local NGOs that the EIA should be carried out by an independent team led by the Faculty of Environmental Management at Prince of Songkhla University (PSU), which studied the ecology of the pipeline route and visited local communities for more than a year to find out their opinions on the project.

On July 29 the first hearing was held in Had Yai, but it was canceled before it got underway for fear of clashes between opponents of the projects and supporters. The leaders of the opposition group were a group of Ramkamhang University students from Bangkok and people from the Campaign for Popular Democracy (CPD), and local people.

Six topics had been planned for discussion over two days; benefits to the nation, the south, and the local community, environmental effects, security for people and property, public benefits and participation, the way of life, and industrial development. The involved agencies were the NESDB, the Department of Mineral Resources, the Office of Energy Policy and Planning, the PTT, and the Ministry of Interior. The Malaysian consul for the region was also invited to attend.

No date has been set for a new hearing. Once one is completed, the outcome will be presented for consideration of the Office of Environmental Policy and Planning under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.

The EIA report shows that although it may be possible to mitigate against the most severe environmental impacts of the pipeline, the social impacts would be high.

Many local villagers - especially those in the village of Talingchan in the Chana district, where the GSP is to be built - expressed deep suspicions of the impact the project on their traditional way of life, particularly the area's distinctive Muslim culture. Surveys carried out as part of the EIA study show that the majority of villagers in Chana (80 percent) thought there would be adverse impacts and that their quality of life would drop as a result of the development. And 59.3 percent of those surveyed within a five kilometer radius of the planned GSP did not want the project to go ahead.

A report released by the PTT claims that the project will help the nation as it will ensure energy stability and create an attractive investment environment in the five southern provinces. It will generate income and foreign exchange from services related to the pipeline, which will benefit the local community.

Some problems expressed:

• Opponents feel the project is contrary to the principles of the country's 8th National Development Plan, which moved emphasis away from industrialization and rapid economic growth towards a future of sustainable development for Thailand.
  

• The economics for the project are complicated by the fact that the PTT is scheduled to be privatized within the project's lifetime, so it is not clear whether the bulk of the profits will go to the state or to private investors.
  

• The EIA study has suggested ways of reducing the environmental impact of the project, but these proposals will only be effective if they are implemented properly, and local people have voiced little confidence in the ability of the government to monitor or control pollution from the project.
  

• The disposal of waste generated during construction and operation of the pipeline and the GSP, particularly hazardous waste, is another concern. The PTT has not yet said how it plans to minimize and dispose of waste, some of which will be contaminated with mercury, other heavy metals, and organic chemicals. As yet there is no facility in southern Thailand suitable for disposal of such waste.
  
  

• The NESDB's master plan for the industrialization of the south had little input from community representatives or NGOs.
  

  Some of the EIA's recommendations:
  
  

• The plant should be managed by a team which includes independent representatives from the local community.
  

• To help local communities benefit from the project, the bulk of the income from the sale of the JDA gas should be paid into a fund controlled by local people which they can use for local development and community support activities, such as improved healthcare and education.
  
  

• The PTT should be charged the full costs of monitoring and enforcing compliance with recommendations to mitigate the environmental and social impact of the pipeline.
  
  

• A significant proportion of the income from the sale of the JDA gas should be used to fund projects to develop and implement the use of sustainable energy technology - solar energy, wind power, and waste-to-energy - as an alternative to fossil fuels.
  
  

• Any future legislation to privatize the PTT should specify that the authority's debts will be transferred to the new private company and not be handed over to the government.
  

The options

A senior official of the PTT has said that public disapproval and failure to pass an EIA could block the project. The contract with Malaysia's Petronas contains a clause which makes revocation possible on the grounds of force majeur. "If the EIA fails to win approval or an unacceptable environmental impact is likely or the project is rejected at a public hearing, it will be considered force majeur," the official he said.

The PTT has also said it might consider constructing a transmission pipeline from the field to connect with the existing offshore natural gas transmission system at the Erawan field, and then pumped to the Eastern Seaboard for distribution to the central regions.

The Democrat-led government of Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai has indicated an unwillingness to force the issue. The Democrats draw the bulk of their support from the south, and with elections due in November 2000, they are mindful of upsetting voters there by appearing to take sides.

(Special to Asia Times Online)

Malaysia-Thai offshore gas reserves huge

http://www.brecorder.com/story/S00CC/SCK01/SCK01131.htm

KUALA LUMPUR (November 1) : Malaysia and Thailand's overlapping Joint Development Area (JDA) contains enough natural gas to last at least 50 years, a senior official of the authority administering the area said.

Ismail Suleman, president and chief executive officer of Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority, said the 7,250-square-km area of the Gulf of Thailand had proven, probable and possible gas reserves of 10 trillion cubic feet.

It's a very significant reserve. We're talking about gas supply for easily 50 years," he told Reuters in an interview.

Malaysia and Thailand agreed in 1979 to jointly exploit resources in the area while shelving negotiations over territorial claims. The two countries split expenses and profits equally.

The state oil companies of Malaysia and Thailand, Petronas and Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT), agreed on Saturday to jointly purchase gas from Block A-18 in the JDA for 20 years.

Ismail said for Block A-18, Cakerawala gas field will be developed with planned start-up date in second quarter of 2002 at an initial rate of 390 million cubic feet per day.

The gas will be piped to Songkhla in southern Thailand, where two gas separation plants will be built. The gas pipeline will be extended from Songkhla to Malaysia's northern Kedah state.

Total investment for the development of the Cakerawala field is estimated at US $800 million.

Ismail said production is expected to bring in $3.0 billion in profits to both governments over the next 20 years. Subject to gas demand, the second phase is expected to commence by 2005 where the sellers will be required to supply an additional 300 million cubic feet per day.

Fifteen gas fields have been discovered in the joint area -- eight in Block A-18 and the rest in Blocks B-17 and C-19. To date, the contractors -- Petronas Carigali (JDA) Sdn Bhd, Triton Oil Co of Thailand (JDA) Ltd and Triton Oil Co of Thailand -- have spent a total of US $364 million in the JDA.--Reuters