The Shams Field in Oman is considered PTT Exploration and Production's first vital step in exposing its integrated petroleum production and exploration business overseas.

Shams is part of the Oman 44 project located in the Suneinah desert, about 300 kilometres west of the capital Muscat.

Omani Oil and Gas Minister Mohammed Hamed Saif Al-Rumhy and Thai Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand witnessed the inauguration of the Shams Central Processing Plant on February 10.

After clinching an exploration and production-sharing deal with Oman's Oil and Gas Ministry, PTTEP became the operator of Oman 44 with a 100-per-cent interest on July 21, 2002.

PTTEP Oman, a subsidiary of PTTEP and the operator of the Oman 44 project, drilled the exploration and appraisal wells, installed the production and pipeline facilities and related infrastructure including the Shams Central Processing Plant to boost production.

Though facing a high risk of finding nothing, PTTEP sent an exploration and drilling team to Shams for three years. Recently, it discovered natural gas, crude oil and condensate in commercial quantities. 

Rangsan Bhengbhun, exploration manager of PTTEP Oman, said last week that out of exploring 10 fields, it had expected to find petroleum in only one.

"But, PTTEP explored and drilled 10 fields and hit petroleum in all of those. It means the exploration was precise," he said.

Large companies like Shell bypassed these fields because they were too small to invest in. But PTTEP saw an opportunity and demonstrated that its capability was not inferior to other large firms.

Maroot Mrigadat, president of PTTEP, said the company had invested US$145 million (Bt5.2 billion) in exploration and production in Omani fields.

"This is considered a success of PTTEP in exploring and producing petroleum in other countries with Thai workers," he said.

Shams' initial output will be 50 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas and 4,000 barrels per day of condensate.

The natural gas will be sold to Oman's Oil and Gas Ministry according to the exploration and production-sharing agreement signed on April 27, 2005.

The condensate will be exported to PTT in Thailand.

Under its 30-year concession, PTTEP will share about 70 per cent of the net proceeds from product sales with the Omani government.

Maroot said PTTEP still had the right to explore and produce petroleum at the Oman 58 project in southern Oman. The company is now in the exploration process, which is expected to take more than three years.

"The success in exploring the Shams field caused the company to gain the confidence of the Omani government in terms of having experience in petroleum exploration and production," he said.

"The inauguration of Shams Field on February 10 not only makes us proud, but it also gives us the comforting thought that we are contributing to Thailand's energy security as well. Shams' condensate delivered to Thailand will alleviate the burden of heavy petroleum imports. Our contribution may be small now but it is a significant step that we take on the road towards energy security in the long term." he said.

PTTEP operates overseas seven exploration and production projects in which it has 100-per-cent ownership. Three are in Burma, two in Oman and one each in Cambodia and Iran.

Prasert Bunsumpun, president of PTT - the majority shareholder of PTTEP - said that over the next five years, PTTEP expected to invest Bt200 billion more in exploration and production.

PTTEP has 923 million barrels of petroleum reserves and production capacity of 184,000

barrels per day of crude oil equivalent.

With assets of Bt157.81 billion, it earned Bt28.05 billion in net profit on sales of Bt91.72 billion last year.

Watcharapong Thongrung

The Nation

OMAN