A Cambodian Tang Solin, 59, pours gasoline into a smaller bottle at her road-side store in the capital Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007. Cambodia is still a long way from beginning to really see commercial production of offshore oil despite the high expectation about the benefit it could bring the impoverished country, a government official said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)Tuesday, January 16, 2007
The Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
Scores of Asian and European companies have expressed an interest in tapping Cambodia's oil wealth, though it will be years before the country realizes the benefits from its offshore reserves, a government official said Tuesday.
"Currently, we cannot say anything concrete yet. We are at the stage of making assessment and still a long way from reaching the production (phase)," Te Duong Tara, the director-general of Cambodian National Petroleum Authority, told The Associated Press Tuesday.
Impoverished Cambodia was set abuzz in 2005 following the discovery of oil off the southwestern coast by U.S. energy giant Chevron Corp.
Since then, Te Duong Tara said oil firms from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, France, Indonesia and China, have been lining up for licenses to explore other potential blocks in the Cambodian waters.
The Chinese state-owned oil company CNOOC Ltd. is presently negotiating terms of agreement with the Cambodian government, which could be signed in the near future, he said without elaborating.
"We are bringing in highly experienced operators," Te Duong Tara said on the sidelines of a petroleum seminar. "In this business, you cannot take in small firms to play, but they can be partners."
Chevron, meanwhile, is conducting exploration drillings in Block A where it first discovered oil, a site located about 140 kilometers (87 miles) southwest of the seaport of Sihanoukville, which is about 185 kilometers (115 miles) southwest of the capital, Phnom Penh.
The company in 2005 discovered crude oil in four wells in the block and has plans to drill 10 more through 2007. But Te Duong Tara warned that estimates the block holds 400 to 500 million barrels was mere speculation.
"The result depends on exploration by Chevron," he said, adding that drilling results should be known by July. "It takes time and comprehensive drilling. From the moment a guaranteed stock is found, it would take three to four more years to begin development."
Te Duong Tara said that oil revenues could have a "profound" impact on the future of Cambodia, where 35 percent of the country's 14 million people live below national poverty line of 50 U.S. cents (40 euro cents) a day.
He said the government will properly manage the oil revenues to ensure they have benefit everyone.
"There is a lot of expectation," he said of the projected oil revenues. "We have a think about how to utilize oil resource for promoting health, education and other social sectors, not just for increasing salary (of the civil servants)."
Critics have voiced concerns that oil revenues could be lost to corruption in the country where graft is widespread.
Scores of Asian and European companies have expressed an interest in tapping Cambodia's oil wealth, though it will be years before the country realizes the benefits from its offshore reserves, a government official said Tuesday.
"Currently, we cannot say anything concrete yet. We are at the stage of making assessment and still a long way from reaching the production (phase)," Te Duong Tara, the director-general of Cambodian National Petroleum Authority, told The Associated Press Tuesday.
Impoverished Cambodia was set abuzz in 2005 following the discovery of oil off the southwestern coast by U.S. energy giant Chevron Corp.
Since then, Te Duong Tara said oil firms from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, France, Indonesia and China, have been lining up for licenses to explore other potential blocks in the Cambodian waters.
The Chinese state-owned oil company CNOOC Ltd. is presently negotiating terms of agreement with the Cambodian government, which could be signed in the near future, he said without elaborating.
"We are bringing in highly experienced operators," Te Duong Tara said on the sidelines of a petroleum seminar. "In this business, you cannot take in small firms to play, but they can be partners."
Chevron, meanwhile, is conducting exploration drillings in Block A where it first discovered oil, a site located about 140 kilometers (87 miles) southwest of the seaport of Sihanoukville, which is about 185 kilometers (115 miles) southwest of the capital, Phnom Penh.
The company in 2005 discovered crude oil in four wells in the block and has plans to drill 10 more through 2007. But Te Duong Tara warned that estimates the block holds 400 to 500 million barrels was mere speculation.
"The result depends on exploration by Chevron," he said, adding that drilling results should be known by July. "It takes time and comprehensive drilling. From the moment a guaranteed stock is found, it would take three to four more years to begin development."
Te Duong Tara said that oil revenues could have a "profound" impact on the future of Cambodia, where 35 percent of the country's 14 million people live below national poverty line of 50 U.S. cents (40 euro cents) a day.
He said the government will properly manage the oil revenues to ensure they have benefit everyone.
"There is a lot of expectation," he said of the projected oil revenues. "We have a think about how to utilize oil resource for promoting health, education and other social sectors, not just for increasing salary (of the civil servants)."
Critics have voiced concerns that oil revenues could be lost to corruption in the country where graft is widespread.
12 comments:
Okay, I am in no hurry, just do
whatever need to be done correctly.
Our resources is not going
anywhere. Whatever we have is what
we will have.
Oh God! This is fucken dangerous to store gasoline like this!! Once puff of cigarette and kar-boomb!!!
Mini-atomic bomb go off! Uh? This give me some ideas already!!!The cocktail bomb!!!Yes! The cocktail bomb when AH HUN SEN Vietcong slave drove by next time!!!
Hopefully, the Cambodian government will use it to benefit everyone. Please, for once, do the people a favor by sharing the wealth.
No problem, just send us the cashes
and we will shared it. Otherwise,
just shut the fuck up.
ah yuon bat psar. ah runteass banh, ah phu**k ur mama and dada.
Auh cha men, Ah Chau Ma Seet chunk
C kaduy skair teit. C tuv choh
a chkout.
ah chhkae yuon ah slab tayhong ah runteass banh ngorp kandal t'gnay, suck my c*ck.
Yeah, I am sure your mother love
your cock, Psycho.
These do not sound appropriate. To excahnge such comments in the news is very childish and should not be allowed to publish. Are these people using the mother or father to get the point across?
Vietcong love to eat dog!ahahahh
How many Vietcong in here?
Yeah, Psycho, but we prefered KK
leftwinger criminal over dog.
To 5:53PM
Vietcong double agent is trying infiltrate KI-MEDIA. ahahahha
If the Vietcong preferred the Khmer Krom over dog then I must send you to Psycho department for mental evaluation!ahahahhahah
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