Prime Minister Hun Sen has said that the commercial viability of Cambodia’s offshore oil deposits remain uncertain, “Oil under the sea is still a dream. It is better to think of how to keep the current economy growing,” he said in a speech broadcast on national radio. “Whether it will be a curse or a blessing, in fact it is still under the seabed, and it is unknown how much [oil] there is.”
He also said he is fed up with critics who claim that the government will siphon off a majority of oil revenues. “We are not so stupid to suffer the so-called oil curse,” he said a university graduation ceremony, adding that oil revenues will be put back into the national budget.
Chevron discovered oil in 2005, 145km off the Cambodian coast. The company found oil in four wells in an area called Block A, but Chevron recently announced that technical challenges needed to be addressed before it moved to develop the block. The company completed a preliminary analysis of the results of its second drilling campaign on the block and released a downbeat assessment, even though it confirmed the presence of hydrocarbons.
“The oil and gas in the reservoir is unique for the Gulf of Thailand, in that the hydrocarbons are dispersed rather that located in one core field” Chevron said in a statement.
The Company said a third drilling campaign was being considered for late 2008-2009. Chevron operates the block with a 55 percent interest, while Mitsui Oil Exploration holds a 30 percent stake and South Korea’s GS Caltex a 15 percent stake.
Cambodia imports more than one million tons of refined oil products annually, mostly from Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.
More hope may come from Block D where China Petrotech Holdings Limited completed a 3 seismic survey earlier in 2007, leading to estimates of recoverable reserves of 227 million barrels of crude and 496 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
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