The first group of gas sellers that will sign an amendment to their gas sales agreement consists of Unocal Thailand, PTTEP, Amerada Hess (Thailand), and MOECO Thai Oil Development.  PTT’s agreement with this group today will enable PTT to buy additional natural gas from the Pailin field, from 330 to 353 million cubic feet per day, effective from October 2003 onward.  With this agreement, the gas sellers have offered an incentive for PTT to buy the gas at 3% of the price.  And with the completion of the third gas pipeline, the sellers are going to offer an additional incentive of 5% provided that PTT takes delivery of 368 million cubic feet per day.  To help power consumers cope with possible rising tariffs, today the Pailin gas sellers has offered a sum of 410 million baht to the Kingdom of Thailand as up-front payment.  The total value of the incentives derived from this contractual amendment amounts to about 20 billion baht.

The second group of gas sellers that PTT is signing an amendment with consists of Chevron Offshore (Thailand), Thaipo, and Palang Sophon.  It was agreed to extend the period of incentive provision by the sellers, for the additional volume provided by the Tantawan/Benjamas fields, until December 31, 2007.  In total, PTT will realize a 12% saving through this incentive scheme, which translate into a sum of 1,280 million baht.  Currently, the price of gas from Tantawan/Benjamas is the lowest in the Gulf of Thailand, which means that Thailand is benefiting from this extension of an incentive.