EXPLORATION RIGHTS BIDDING NEXT YEAR

       The Mineral Fuels Department next year plans to open the 21st round of bidding by companies for exploration rights to petroleum fields.
       Kurujit Nakarntap, director-general of the department, said last week that most of the fields had already been surveyed but the four-year term of exploration rights had expired.
       He was confident that this new round would attract many applicants.
       In the last round two years ago, the department invited companies to explore 65 fields, of which 56 were on land, totalling 211,687 square metres, and nine were in the Gulf of Thailand, totalling 23,919 square kilometres.
       If the companies find oil and want to start pumping, they have to apply for a production concession from the department.
       The department expects to collect Bt44 billion in production concession fees this year, plus Bt88 billion from concession holders in the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area in the Gulf of Thailand.
       The department estimates that investment in petroleum exploration and production this year would match last year's Bt130 billion.
       The country produces 90,000 barrels per day of condensate and 150,000bpd of crude oil, while the production of 2.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas is lower than domestic demand.