“We’re keeping our investment at US$1.7 billion (Bt57.8 billion) for maintaining our existing gas and oil plants (next year), as we also have another budget for expanding our investment and for mergers and acquisitions at $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year,” Somporn Vongvuthipornchai, president and chief executive officer, said in a group interview after a site visit to the greater Bongkot South field last weekend.

“We cannot figure our investment budget for 2017 exactly because we’re still doing our business plan, but our minimum maintenance budget averages $1.7 billion a year for our existing plan.

“A bigger investment budget depends on our business opportunities, as we can say our cash on hand of $3.2 billion is part of our budget for our business expansion in 2017 that will focus on Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia,” he said.

PTTEP has exploration and production oil and gas fields in Myanmar and Malaysia.

In Indonesia, it also has an exploration business.

In Thailand, the company would cooperate with its partners to bid for the Bongkot gas field that it is currently operating.

It has a 44.44-per-cent stake in the field, while Total E&P Thailand has 33.33 per cent and BG Asia Pacific the remaining 22.22 per cent.

Cutting production cost

The Bongkot field produces about 900 million square feet of gas a day, or about 20 per cent of the country’s demand for natural gas. The field also employs 600 staff.

The National Energy Policy Council, chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, has said the government would put to bid in the third quarter of next year the two major petroleum blocks whose concessions expire in 2022-2023.

The company’s strategy includes expanding in related business that will contribute other income.

For example, the company is studying investing in the LNG (liquefied natural gas) business together with its parent PTT, and studying new businesses such as renewable energy, particularly solar and wind power, minerals and batteries.

“We are studying to expand |our business by focusing on related businesses that we have experience in. That will balance our business during the period of oil price fluctuation,” Somporn said.

The company is also cutting its petroleum production cost by 10 per cent from the average of $34 per barrel to $31-$32 to maintain its net profit margin at nearly last year’s level while the oil price still stays under $50 per barrel.

In the first half of this year, PTTEP earned Bt8.28 billion on revenue of Bt78.28 billion.