Thai Government Delays Salween Dam Project : May Shelve Project Entirely

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Salween Dam has ‘Too Much Dirty Backwash’ for Thailand

HATGYI: -- The large-scale hydroelectric dam proposed for the River Salween at Hatgyi might never be built—at least not by Thailand.

That’s the view of some energy industry analysts following the Bangkok government’s announcement that further environmental studies of the estimated US $1 billion project—which is located inside Burma, but close to the Thai border—are to be made.

Plans for more assessments before any building work begins come on top of previous delays to the project, which has earmarked a massive 1,200-megawatt capacity electricity-generating system.

“This new stall indicates that the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is having second thoughts,” Bangkok analyst Collin Reynolds told The Irrawaddy.

“It’s not so much concern about the environment as it is about need. Since the dam plans were first drawn up, the Thai Energy Ministry and EGAT [the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand] have been revising down their forecasts of future power need.

“And for a guy like Abhisit with his Western background, there is just too much dirty backwash politics in the Hatgyi project.”

Abhisit, under pressure from environmental and human rights groups, has ordered closer scrutiny of Hatgyi, which would lead to the forced displacement of many Karen people.

A dam at Hatgyi has been discussed since the 1990s. An agreement to build it was signed in 2006 between EGAT, the Burmese government and several other partners, notably China’s state-owned Sinohydro Corporation.

Industry analysts say that if Thailand does eventually withdraw from the project, it’s possible that Chinese firms might take over—but because of a lack of infrastructure it would be much more expensive to transmit the electricity to China than into Thailand.

Britain Criticizes Russia for Selling Planes to Burmese Military

The British government has called for coordinated international action to stop the sale of weapons to the Burmese military regime.

The call comes as the British Foreign Office disclosed that it has protested to Moscow’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs over Russian state firms' planned sales of military planes worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Burma.

“A global arms embargo remains a priority for this government, and we will continue to press for [it],” said Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis in a statement this week.

However, the human rights group Burma Campaign UK said the London statement fell short of pressing the United Nations to implement a worldwide ban on arms sales to Burma, which would be the most effective action.

Prominent UN members China and India are among countries still selling weapons and military equipment to the Burmese junta.

A European Union ban on weapons sales to Burma has been in place since 1996.

Thailand’s PTT to Triple Oil Product Sales to Burma via Partner

Thailand is more than tripling its sale of vehicle lubricants to Burma as the state oil and gas conglomerate PTT aggressively expands its regional market.

PTT said this week it aims to export over 3 million liters of engine lubricant products into Burma this year, compared with only 830,000 liters in 2009.

The Thai company said it had entered into a joint marketing venture with a Burmese firm, Tunn Star, which was giving it greater access to the “strong potential” in the Burma market.

Yadana Pipe Closure Underlines Thai Dependency on Burma Gas

Thailand’s Energy Ministry insists that a 16-day shutdown of the pipeline carrying gas from Burma’s Yadana offshore field is for maintenance reasons only and will not lead to electricity shortages in Thailand.

The controversial pipeline through Burma carries more than one-third of Thailand’s daily demand at power plants.

Its closure, between March 19 and April 3, underlines how dependent Thailand has become on Burmese gas.

The Bangkok Energy Ministry is scrambling to try to ensure alternative fuel supplies during the Yadana cut off period, including extra gas production from wells in the Gulf of Thailand and a switch to diesel oil burning at some duel-fuel use power plants.

The Yadana pipeline shutdown will not cause electricity shortages in Thailand, says the Thai ministry, but it might lead to higher retail costs later this year.

source: www.irrawaddy.org

2010-02-20

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[Deke]

In my opinion this project falls into the category of those that are politically instigated but nobody ever expects to actually materialize. The Thai government at the time (May 2005) signed an MOU with the Myanmar government to build 1190 MW at Hatgyi and 7000 MW at Tasang. There is no way that even that government, let alone the present one, would ignore international sentiment on the issue.

Burma has a lot of potential hydro resources but it will be a long time before they are able to take advantage of them like Laos does.