PTT, Thailand’s largest oil and gas conglomerate said it plans to conduct a feasibility study on petrochemical and oil refinery projects in three ASEAN countries – Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

Pailin Chuchottaworn, PTT chief executive said, however, that Indonesia and Myanmar show the most potential.

Bin May Mialia, commercial manager for PTT in Cambodia was not aware of plans for a study, and he declined to comment further.

Men Den, a spokesman for Cambodia National Petroleum Authority said that so far he has not received any official letter from the company.

“It is quite new to me, and the working group has not received any information about that,” said Mam Sambath, director of Development Partnership in Action, said that PTT’s plan would benefit the local industry due to the experience they will bring should they choose to start operating in Cambodia.

“We all know that we already have one company that started building a plant in Kampot last year. So if PTT definitely wants to build a refinery plant, it will make the industry more competitive and the consumers will enjoy a competitive price,” said he said.

Last year, local Cambodian Petrochemical Company signed a joint-venture investment deal with two Chinese companies – China National Automation Control System Corporation and Chinese-Sino for $600 million to build an oil refinery plant in Kampot province.

Cambodia had expected to have the first drop of offshore oil from Block A by December 12, 2012, the licence for which had been given to US company Chevron.

However, this date has been pushed back to 2016.

The government will receive 70 to 80 per cent of revenue from the block, totalling $500 million per year, said Mam Sambath.

PTT is currently coming close to finishing its feasibility study on a $28.7 billion, 660,000-barrels-per-day oil refinery and petrochemical complex at the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone in coastal Binh Dinh province of Vietnam, said Chuchottaworn.

To contact the reporter on this story: May Kunmakara at [email protected]