• 
• 

Published on April 4, 2008

However, industrial plants that use natural gas and NGV consumers may face short-term impacts, due to disruptions of supply from the Yetagun Field.

Egat Governor Sombat Santijaree said the agency has adjusted its generating plans, after the pipeline was shut down due to two cracks in the pipeline and the flow of 1,160 million cubic feet per day (mcfpd) from Yetagun and Yadana fields was temporarily halted.

PTT purchases an average of 460 mcfpd of natural gas from Yetagun and 700 mcfpd from Yadana located in the Gulf of Martaban. Most of the gas from Yetagun is for power generation.

To cover the shortfall, Egat ran its power plants with 500,000 litres of bunker oil and 300,000 litres of diesel per hour.

After PTT resumes the feeding of low-heat gas from Yadana later in the day, bunker oil consumption would be cut by 6 million litres to 9 milion litres per day. Diesel consumption remains at 10 million litres a day.

"This incident will not disrupt power supply as power reserves account for 15 per cent of total consumption," Sombat said, while urging the public to reduce consumption to help ease the situation.

Earlier, Egat suffered from a slower-than-expected supply of gas from Arthit Field.

To offset shortfalls from Arthit and Yetagun, Egat now runs the thermal power plants in Ratchaburi, Bangpakong and South Bangkok with bunker oil. Its combined cycle plants, which are run on gas from Burma would use diesel as a substitute.

PTT also cut its gas supply to its fifth gas separation plants by 80 mcfpd, and switched the gas to the power plant in Wang Noi - a district in Ayutthaya, which houses a number of industrial plants.

Thailand's power demand usually peaks in April.

Chitrapongse Kwangsuk-stith, senior executive vice president of PTT, said PTT would ensure constant supply of bunker oil and diesel for Egat.

The Nation