Thailand Royalty Visits Arthit Platform in Gulf of Thailand

Thailand's Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn on August 13, 2009, paid a royal private visit to the Arthit platform in the Gulf of Thailand. The visit was arranged so that Her Royal Highness could observe how officials of PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited operate the platform.

On hand to welcome Her Royal Highness were Minister of Energy Dr. Wannarat Channukul, the Director-General of the Department of Mineral Fuels and senior government officials, PTTEP Chairman Mr. Prasert Bunsumpun, PTTEP CEO Mr.Anon Sirisaengtaksin, PTTEP President Mr. Maroot Mrigadat.

Arthit is the first petroleum project that PTTEP developed from the beginning. The company conducted exploration, supervised the design of the platform, developed and now operates the project which is situated in Navamindra Petroleum Area in the Gulf of Thailand about 230 kilometers off Songkhla Province. It covers an area of 3,682 square kilometers, and is adjacent toBongkot Project which is also operated by PTTEP.

PTTEP received the concession for Blocks B14A, B15A and B16A after the Governments of Thailand and Vietnam finalized the demarcation agreement for the Gulf of Thailand in 1998.The Government of Thailand gave PTTEP the rights to explore, develop, and produce petroleum in thearea belonging to Thailand. On March 26, 2008, after a strenuous 10 years of hardwork, the company proudly delivered the first gas. The project has become an icon of what PTTEP and Thai people can achieve.

Today the Arthit Project produces 370 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd) and 20,000 barrels of condensate per day, supplying about 10% of Thailand's gas demand. It is expected to maintain the gas supply for 20 years.

The Arthit Project was developed with an investment of 52,400 million baht (about US $1,414million). Its main structures are the central processing platform weighing 16,800 tons, one of the biggest in the Asia-Pacific Region, a living quarter platform which accommodates 150 workers, 6 remote wellhead platforms and 90 production wells. It also uses the most modern technologies such as CO2 Removal using membrane method, Field Bus Technology, which is the most advanced system used for field control, Remote Wellhead Platform System which is used to open and close the production well valves and thus helping to reduce the technicians' need to travel to work on remote wellhead platforms.

The production process adheres to PTTEP's safety and environmental standards making it not only an environmental friendly project but also safe one. The platform was designed with safety in mind. That coupled with the use of modern equipment help raise the efficiency of the project.

The partners in the Arthit Project are PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited or PTTEP (Operator) with an 80% share, Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production with a 16% share and MOECO Thailand with a 4% share.

 


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