Asean Ministers Mull Gas Pipeline Options - Vietnam Investment Review, October 7
By Vu Long
THE trans-Asean gas pipeline project was high on the agenda of the 18th Asean Ministers of Energy Meeting in Hanoi.
Participants heard the project, funded by Asean national oil companies, foreign donors and investors, was in the process of construction. So far the Myanmar-Thailand and Malaysia-Singapore pipelines had been completed. According to Guillermo Balce, executive director of the Asean Centre for Energy (ACE), the idea of a pipeline stretching from Vietnam to Indonesia was feasible since Vietnam appeared to have sufficient oil and gas reserves. "Vietnam is still far from the mainstream of the pipeline but the south of Vietnam is connected to oil and gas platforms," said Balce.
If Vietnam proved to have large reserves of oil and gas, the Vietnam-Indonesia pipeline would be necessary.
"We are to re-study the integration of Vietnam into the project," said Balce.
One Vietnamese official said Vietnam was applying to participate in the trans-Asean gas pipeline project. The government was in the process of negotiating with other Asean countries on the issue.
Out of the 10 Asean countries, Indonesia is the only member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). In future, Balce said, there were two options for cooperation between Asean and OPEC in the petrol field. One was to consider Indonesia as Asean's intermediate country. All oil- and gas-related problems would be sent to Indonesia, then submitted to OPEC. The other option would be for the Asean secretariat to talk directly with the OPEC secretariat.
"The recent oil crisis hasn't had a negative impact on the production of Asean," said Balce. Indonesia was turning out around 1.7 million barrels of oil per day and Brunei had a similar output. Vietnam and Thailand were exploiting more and more, ensuring stability of oil and gas consumption among Asean members in compliance with the Asean Petroleum Security Agreement signed in 1986. The agreement permits Asean members to exchange oil and gas at the negotiated price. The ministers stressed the importance of cooperation with foreign partners, especially the EU community and the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry. According to ACE, so far the EU has committed 18 million euros to support around 50-60 Asean energy-related projects that are to be conducted over five years from January 2001.
The EU placed a condition that all projects should be jointly financed and there should be an equal cooperation and management share between Asean and European companies, Balce said. Financial support worth 25 million euros for other Asean energy projects was also under negotiation, he revealed.
"The three projects, namely renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation and formulation of comprehensive energy security plans for Asean, which are supported by MITI, are expected to be operational by September this year," he added.
According to the ministers, private investment was crucial to Asean energy growth. Therefore, adoption of various measures to promote private sector involvement in energy investment and production should be made. Joining the meeting, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai emphasised that energy development must be in harmony with economic development and environmental protection.
The next meeting is planned to be held in Darussalam, Brunei, in the first week of July 2001. |
