03-06-04 Thailand plans to buy natural gas and crude oil from Russia as an alternative source of energy supply to help reduce heavy dependence on sources in the Middle East, said Songpope Polachan, director of the Energy Ministry's policy and strategy co-ordination office.
The plan was part of the bilateral talks between Energy Minister Prommin Lertsuridej and Vladimir Karastin, Russia's deputy minister of economic development and trade, on energy co-operation on the sideline of the Apec summit meeting of 21 member countries in October last year. Both sides agreed to work more closely on energy co-operation to help put Thailand on course to become a centre of energy activities for the region.

Mr Songpope said Russia's Sakarin offshore gas field was very interesting, with plenty of gas deposits. The Sakarin field, located in Russia's offshore territory to the north of Japan, has been developed by Shell and Esso at a cost of $ 20 bn. He said the planned purchase of gas from Russia, which would be in the form of LNG, would help ease the country's tight supply.
PTT's first and second gas pipelines are expected to be running at their full capacities by late this year while the third pipeline, currently under construction, will start operation in 2006, resulting in a shortage of gas supply next year. Work on the purchase might need to begin this year because the platform and infrastructure construction to accommodate the LNG storage and supply would take up to six years to complete.

A new gas pipeline route could be completed by 2011, a year after the third pipeline, to begin operation in 2006, is projected to reach its full capacity. Mr Songpope said Thailand also wanted to buy crude oil from Russia under a government-to-government agreement but a detailed study needed to be conducted to ensure the quality was suitable and the amount adequate for local refineries.
As well, Thailand may negotiate with Russia to buy crude oil from Japan where it will be supplied by Russia via the pipeline networking. The purchases will prove economical, as the supply source is closer to Thailand than the Middle East sources.

Russia is a major centre for energy activities. Some 40 % of its export revenue comes from energy-related products. It has the largest natural gas reserves and second-largest coal deposits in the world. Its oil reserves are also the world's eighth largest.
Mr Songpope said Russia was also asked to invest in Thailand's southern land bridge project and biofuel venture as alternative fuels for automobiles.

Earlier, Dr Prommin said Russia saw great potential in the energy market in Asia where natural gas and oil pipelines would be laid from Russia to China. In the future, Asian countries are not going to have to rely on the Middle East for oil but instead will turn to Russia.
Specifically, Russia has expressed interest in participating in the trans-peninsular land bridge project in the southern part of Thailand while Thailand would like to be more active in petroleum exploration and development in Russian territory.