UNOCAL: almost Ready to Exploit fro

[ktint@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

           UNOCAL: Almost Ready to Exploit from Burma's Yadana Field
                 Gas pipeline 60 Percent completed:PTT

                   Reuters,September 09, 1997

         BANGKOK, Sept 9 (Reuter) - Construction on the Yadana gas 
pipeline from Burma to Thailand is 60 percent complete and deliveries 
should begin next July, a senior Thai energy official said on Tuesday.
         Piti Yimprasert, president of state-run Petroleum Authority of 
Thailand's natural gas section, said construction of the project which 
would move gas from the offshore Burmese Yadana field overland to 
Thailand was now 60 percent completed.
         The 16.5 billion baht ($471.43 million) project was slightly 
behind an earlier schedule as PTT had been forced to seek approval from 
the Office of Environmental Policy and Planning before construction could 
resume.
         The hitch followed protests from environmentalists that a 
section of the project might harm flora and fauna in the area.
         However, Piti said in a statement that he expected gas 
deliveries could begin in mid-July 1998.
         The length of the pipeline from Yadana into Thailand will be 
699-km (434.08-mile).
         The project will initially provide 325 million cubic feet per 
day (mmcfd) of natural gas to Thailand. Under the 30-year contract, the 
supply will increase to 525 mmcfd in 1999.
         Yadana's gas in place is estimated to be over five trillion 
cubic feet.
         PTT Exploration and Production Plc, a unit of PTT, holds 25.5 
percent interest in the field, Unocal 28.26  percent, Total SA 31.24 
percent and Burmese state-run oil firm Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise 15 
percent.



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      Copyright 1997, Reuters News Service