The proposed NOC would be supervised by the Department of Defence Energy under jurisdiction of the Defence Ministry in the initial stage, according to an amendment to the Petroleum Act due to be voted on in the NLA this Thursday.

Pridiyathorn said the NOC proposal was included in an amendment to the Act in the second reading, even though there was no such provision in the first reading, which had been approved by the Cabinet for NLA consideration.

As a result, there are irregularities in the NOC plan, which would take over existing responsibilities in the management and bidding process for lucrative petroleum concessions.

At this stage, there is no feasibility study on the pros and cons of setting up a NOC, so it was inappropriate and premature to push for it being set up, Pridiyathorn said.

According to sources, the setting up of a NOC is being pushed by the NLA committee on energy affairs, whose members include former senior |military officers close to the prime |minister.

Pridiyathorn said proponents of the NOC should propose a separate bill to set up such an important agency, instead of including it in an amendment to the Petroleum Act.

Powers could be abused

The Act aims to overhaul the energy sector via various methods to increase public benefits from oil and gas concessions granted by the government. New systems such as Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) will be used along with existing methods.

He said the Thai energy sector had been efficiently managed for several decades by a transparent structure, resulting in sufficient energy sources for national development.

But he said the powers of a new agency responsible for managing oil and gas concessions could be abused.

Pridiyathorn said an Defence Energy Department of the Defence Ministry was in charge of Thai energy affairs about five decades ago and the result was unsatisfactory.

That was before the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) was set up as a state enterprise to take over the Defence Ministry role.

The PTT was later listed on the stock market with the government remaining its majority shareholder with more than 51 per cent of shares.