|
Thai PTT in talks with PetroVietnam on new refinery
Thailand's largest energy company, PTT Pcl, said on Thursday it was in talks with state-owned PetroVietnam to build an oil refinery in Vietnam as part of PTT's overseas expansion.
PTT, Asia-Pacific's third largest oil and gas firm by market value, is also studying upstream, downstream and power businesses in Vietnam, Chief Financial Officer Tevin Vongvanich told reporters.
"We are interested in all of them. If we have a chance, we will go for it," Tevin said. "We are negotiating with Petrovietnam to build an oil refinery there because Vietnam has a policy to construct a few of them."
"If it does not succeed, PTT may negotiate with them to import oil products from Thailand because we have some excess in output," he said.
PTT subsidiary PTT Exploration and Production Pcl has joined with US oil major Chevron to negotiate with Vietnam government on developping gas fields in Vietnam, Tevin said.
PTT was also keen on building a gas pipeline, he said without giving details about the fields.
Chevron operates Block 52/97 and B, 48/95, in which PTTEP has an 8.5 percent stake in the first and 7 percent in the latter. PTTEP also has interest in two other blocks, 9-2 and 16-1, in Vietnam.
In addition, PTT is interested in building a power plant to sell electricity in Vietnam because of the large size of the market and its strong economic growth, Tevin said.
PTT, valued at $30 billion, runs Thailand's gas pipeline monopoly and controls more than 30 petroleum, gas exploration, petrochemical and refinery businesses. It ranks behind PetroChina and Sinopec.
PTT shares were up 1.9 percent, while the broader index .SETI was 1.4 percent higher. ($1 = 29.95 Baht).
tuoitrenews, reuteurs
|
