Not enough oil troubles Cambodia’s waters

Could Cambodia’s much-touted energy potential, which the World Bank and others had earlier estimated in total at 2 billion barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, become a bust before it ever boomed? Expectations of an energy resource bounty have now suddenly dampened as top Cambodian officials strike a more cautionary tone.
A senior Cambodian energy official last December publicly estimated that the 6,278-square-kilometer Block A that US

energy giant Chevron is now drilling could contain as much as 700 million barrels of oil, or nearly twice the earlier 400-million-barrel estimate. Government officials had estimated in January that they hoped to ramp up production by as early as 2009, three to seven years earlier than the World Bank projected as possible.

Marking a notable departure from that optimism, this month Prime Minister Hun Sen told a major business conference in Phnom Penh that the “speculation is highly premature”. And despite the over 600 mostly foreign business delegates in attendance at the Cambodia Investment, Trade and Infrastructure conference, Chevron declined to take part in panel discussions on Cambodia’s natural resources. The company had previously said it would publicly disclose its findings and estimates in April or May.

Hun Sen’s comments and Chevron’s low profile have led to downward revisions in some concerned quarters of the government’s earlier bonanza estimates. Ever since Chevron reported promising energy finds in Cambodian waters in December 2004, there has been widespread hope that energy exports could transform one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries into a major regional oil-and-gas producer.

Asia Times