Chevron and Mitsui to Explore Another Thailand Block

Oil giant Chevron and Japan's Mitsui & Co have been awarded more exploration rights in the Gulf of Thailand following the nation's latest round of bidding.

The companies have been granted the rights to Block G4/50 just more than a month after being granted the right to extend the production period on blocks 10, 11, 12 and 13 for an extra ten years from 2012 to 2022.

These alone have a daily average production of about one billion cubic feed of gas and 60,000 barrels of oil and condensate, according to Mitsui.

The new round of bidding also saw a consortium of Harrods Natural Resources of Thailand and PTT Exploration & Production Thai, Total Korat and BG Thailand receive the rights to block G9/50.

In total, seven offshore blocks have been offered but no timeframe has been indicated for the second round announcements.

By Penny Jones