Cambodia’s coming energy bonanza

If the United Nations, World Bank and Harvard University are to be believed, Cambodia is poised to become a major new global energy exporter, with a fossil-fuel windfall that promises to double the country’s current gross domestic product (GDP) and potentially lift millions of Cambodians out of poverty.

US oil giant Chevron has indicated a huge oil-and-gas find off Cambodia’s south coast, where it has reportedly hit black in four

out of five well tests. Cambodian energy official Te Duong Tara last week estimated that the 6,278-square-kilometer Block A that Chevron is drilling could contain as much as 700 million barrels of oil, or nearly twice the earlier 400-million-barrel estimate.
The World Bank has said that Cambodia’s total energy reserves may be as high as 2 billion barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Depending on future world prices, fuel exports could generate annual revenues upwards of US$2 billion, or several times the current combined amount that Cambodia generates in domestic revenues and receives in foreign aid, the bank has said. Meanwhile, Cambodian energy officials indicated this week that they hope to ramp up production as early as 2009, three to seven years earlier than the World Bank projected as feasible.

Those gushy projections have multinational oil companies lining up to win exploration licenses and production agreements for the other five blocks designated by the government. Competition is hot for the rights to drill the 6,557-square-kilometer Block B, where France’s Total SA and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) are reportedly dueling over the lead contract. Japanese, South Korean, Kuwaiti, Thai, Malaysian and Singaporean energy companies are also reportedly bidding on exploration stakes – though it’s unclear whether the Cambodian government plans to field bids for all six maritime blocks.

Asia Times