PTTEP faces margin pressure on gas plan

As the Thai NOC embarks on its record five-year investment programme, analysts wonder how it will maintain profitability

Thailand’s NOC and largest petroleum producer PTTEP in December announced its largest-ever five-year investment programme of $24.6bn. Maintaining margins on these investments will be challenging given the gas prices it has committed to receiving for the output of its holdings in the Gulf of Thailand.  PTTEP won production and development rights for the Bongkot and Erawan fields in the Gulf of Thailand in December 2018. Chevron previously operated Erawan, while PTTEP was already the operator of Bongkot. The company was awarded the fields based on its offered gas price of $3.55/mn Btu and profit share terms that were more favourable than those offered by Chevron, says Prateek Pandey, senior up