By the OGJ Online Staff
BANGKOK, Apr. 10 -- A new Thai import reduction policy may force the Petroleum Authority of Thailand to defer its planned 3 billion baht ($66.6 million) project to lay an onshore gas pipeline in southern Thailand.
In the face of rapid fall in the country's trade surplus, the kingdom's new Thaksin Shinawatra administration has instructed various state enterprises to delay or trim projects that involve major import contents.
The 20-in., 80-km transmission line was originally set to come onstream in 2003 with a gas throughput capacity of 150 MMcfd.
For the time being, it is unclear for how long the planned pipeline�to be laid from PTT's natural gas separation plant in Khanom district of Nakhon Si Thammarat to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) Surat Thani power station in Surat Thani�will be postponed.
The pipeline delay means the two 100-Mw gas turbines being installed at the Surat Thani site will initially run on diesel oil rather than natural gas when they are ready later this year, prompting the Thai state power utility to reexamine the development of the combined cycle power plant.
The turbines were removed from Egat's Sai Noi power station in Nonthaburi, near Bangkok, at a cost of nearly 870 million bhat, after development was scaled down due to the slower growth in power demand in the central plains.
The government policy may also cause Egat to reschedule the installation of a steam turbine with 100-Mw capacity, first scheduled to come online in March 2003, to complete the combined cycle set at the Surat Thani plant.
Due to the prohibitive cost of diesel oil, Egat plans to run Surat Thani facility to provide "emergency reserves." At full capacity, the power plant requires 1.7 million l. of diesel oil/day.
Aside from the Khanom-Surat Thani gas pipeline plan, PTT governor Viset Choopiban said the state oil and gas enterprise will look into other projects, such as oil storage facilities, for possible deferment.
PTT's move to delay the Khanom-Surat Thani gas pipeline project came shortly after it issued an invitation to international engineering consulting firms to take part in the pre-qualification process to provide consultancy services for the project.
