Thai Energy Ministry reasons with villagers
The Energy Ministry is urging protesters of offshore oil exploration near Koh Samui to hear its explanation regarding environmental protection and safety measures before taking action.
Local residents have been protesting in recent weeks against new exploration in the
Songpop Polachan, deputy director-general of the Department of Mineral Fuels, said the department and London-based Nucoastal, the operator of the new field, arranged a public hearing on Koh Samui early last month in compliance with the law.
But some protesters chose not to listen.
“We tried to explain this is just exploration and no one can be sure if they will find anything to extract. And this is not the first project in the area, there are a lot of oil fields operating around the
“I think the protesters were panicked because of the incident in the
Mr Songpop said there is no chance a similar incident to the Gulf of Mexico could happen here because the oil wells here are low pressure, while in the
Oil and gas wells in the
“The big wells here have reserves of around 500 to 1,000 barrels in one oil pocket, while those in the
The DMF granted licences of exploration to Chevron and Pearl Oil that stood around 100 km from the coastline of Koh Samui, but they could not find any reserves.
“I want to ask them to calm down and listen to our marine safety standards and environmental protection measures,” said Mr Songpop.
DMF director-general Kurujit Nakornthap said the state may need to extend the licence for Nucoastal as the contract allows the government to request a penalty fee from the licence holder if the project cannot start in three years after the agreement was signed.
For this field, Nucoastal is required to start by the end of this year or the licence is invalid.
To prevent future opposition, DMF in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and exploration and production companies in Thailand has proposed to set up a fund from the offshore explorers for marine life preservation and offshore environmental protection, he said.