Chaiwat Choorit, PTT's senior executive vice-president for oil business, said the company had established a negotiating team to discuss the price and other details with Conoco.

After slumping sales, Conoco announced its intention to pull out of Thailand and Malaysia.

For two years, oil retailers in the Kingdom suffered from low profit margins caused largely by the previous government's efforts to raise petrol prices as slowly as possible.

Meanwhile, Maroot Mrigadat, president of PTT Exploration and Production Plc (PTTEP), said his company had urged the Energy Ministry to hasten Cabinet approval for it to start operating in oil fields it previously had won concessions for PTTEP Siam Co Ltd has concessions on several blocks in the Andaman Sea and on land-based oil fields.