Thailand’s oil explorer PTTEP to sell Oman 44 project

Thailand’s largest oil and gas explorer, PTT Exploration and Production Pcl said on Monday it will sell its Oman 44 natural gas project to ARA Petroleum LLC in a shift in investments in the Middle Eastern country.

PTTEP, the upstream flagship of state-controlled PTT Pcl, Thailand’s largest energy company, will sell its wholly-owned unit PTTEP Oman Co Ltd, which holds 100 per cent of the Oman 44 onshore project, to ARA Petroleum, the company said in a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The deal is expected to close in early fourth quarter of 2016.

The Oman 44 Project is an onshore natural gas and condensate field located west of the capital Muscat with area of 1,162 sq km (449 sq miles). It has been in commercial production since 2007 with an average output of 19 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and 904 barrels per day of condensate in the second quarter of 2016.

PTTEP gave no details about the value of the sale.

In order to find other opportunities in the country, PTTEP also signed a memorandum of understanding with Oman Oil Company Exploration and Production LLC, a subsidiary of national oil firm Oman Oil Co, to seek “co-investment opportunities in areas of mutual interest” in Oman, it said.

PTTEP operates 38 projects in 11 countries. Sales volume from projects in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries accounted for a combined 94 per cent of total in the second quarter, according to the company’s data.