Cambodia prepares to get its first drop of oil by end of 2012.
But who will win the race? Chevron or CNOOC?
CNOOC to start drilling 1st oil well in Cambodia
The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) will start drilling the first well in the Block F offshore in Cambodia’s Preah Sihanouk province later this month.
The first well drilling is expected to cost 20 million US dollars.
CNOOC is China’s biggest offshore oil and gas company. It also helps developing Cambodian petroleum officials to keep up with new techniques in oil and gas industry.
The government of Cambodia awarded the Block F in the total area of over 7,000 square kilometers to the CNOOC in 2007, according to the document of the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority.
The Block F is one of the six offshore Blocks that Cambodia awarded to companies to do the exploration.
Chevron, Mitsui Oil, etc.
The other five Blocks are Block A by the US Chevron and Japan’ s Mitsui Oil Exploration, Block B to Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production and Singapore Petroleum, Block C to Polytec Petroleum Hong Kong, Block D to China Petrotech Holdings Limited, and Block E to Medco Energi and Kuwait Energy.
Oil Blocks in the Gulf of Thailand
Chevron’s deadline for oil production is Dec 12, 2012.
Eight years after Chevron found crude oil off Cambodia’s coast, the American company has yet to begin full production. In remarks in April, Prime Minister Hun Sen said he wants the oil giant to begin production by 2012 or risk losing its rights. Since 2002, Chevron has been present in Cambodia: over that time period the company drilled 18 wells, $160 million worth of investment. Technically, Chevron’s ready to start drilling oil. It has submitted the production permit application to CNPA [the Cambodia National Petroleum Authority]. Chevron is working through the remaining issues with CNPA with the target of getting a final investment decision this year.
Oil refinery in Sihanoukville?
The impoverished Southeast Asian nation hopes that the first drop of its own-produced oil will be available from December, 2012 as now Cambodia’s Petrochemical Company, a joint-venture with the China National Automation Control System Corporation, has been studying the feasibility to build an oil refinery with an annual capacity of 5 million tons per year in Preah Sihanouk province.
Source: adapted and complemented from Xinhua.
Read more:
- http://www.chevron.com/documents/pdf/CambodiaFactSheet.pdf
- http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-12/14/content_14267039.htm
