Thailand Will Run Out Of Natural Gas In 10 Years

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Thailand Will Run Out of Gas In 10 Years

BANGKK: -- An energy crisis is looming on the distant horizon for Thailand. About a decade from now, all the natural gas from the Gulf of Thailand will have been used up. Costly alternatives such as importing liquefied gas and increasing the use of fuel oil/diesel plants will cause electric bills to skyrocket.

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On April 4-12, a disruption of Thailand’s gas supply from Myanmar will occur when their gas facilities shut down for yearly maintenance. The Thai electric utility company will adjust for the temporary disruption by increasing usage of existing fuel oil and diesel plants, a spokesman said.

Thailand gets 70 percent of its energy supply from natural gas, which mainly comes from the Gulf of Thailand. However, about a fourth of Thailand’s natural gas is imported from Myanmar. The rest of Thailand’s energy is supplied by coal burning plants that provide about 20 percent, with the remaining 10 percent coming from dams and renewable energy sources.

The Thai government currently supports the building of “clean coal” technology to deal with the long-range problem of the natural gas running out, said Mr. Ditpong Potchana, vice governor of social affairs of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT).

“Having to depend on importing natural gas to meet energy needs might lead to instability and threaten the security of the industry,” he said.

Mr. Ditpong said the most appropriate option to solve the energy problem was new power plant development, and seeking alternative renewable fuel to replace natural gas. The new development would be stabilizing the fuel supply to the electric power plants, and help prevent electric bills from spiraling upward.

The alternative to using existing natural gas is importing the expensive Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) which costs three times as much. Right now, about 25 percent of Thailand’s imported natural gas in LNG, but that percentage may double in the next 15 years, after the natural gas supply is gone

However, the Ministry of Power and the EGAT recognized that the coal importing would be the perfect solution now, because of more efficient technology. Many countries had been producing electricity from coal already, and it tends to produce a more effective energy ratio of converting coal to electricity, Mr. Ditpong said.

Full story: http://www.pattayada...as-in-10-years/

-- Pattaya Daily News 2013-02-21

[MacWalen]

Avoiding nuclear power is a very backward thinking. Sure, lets burn some more coal! Amazing Thailand.

[BrianCR]

Thailand will never ever run out of natural gas as each successive government will be completely full of it!

[ChrisY1]

Avoiding nuclear power is a very backward thinking. Sure, lets burn some more coal! Amazing Thailand.

Thailand with a power reactors....???....I don't think it's backward thinking at all....rather sensible thinking....they know approval would probably not happen so easily.

Plus planning and construction is around 20 years.....governments changing, security questionable, corruption and so on.....highly unlikely to happen.

The Philipines has a facility....and as I understand, cannot source fuel.

[BrianCR]

Avoiding nuclear power is a very backward thinking. Sure, lets burn some more coal! Amazing Thailand.

Would you really trust a Thai with something that could turn into a nuclear bomb? - I can see it now - "NO! Somchai I said DON'T press the red button!

[yooper2001]

You would think that thailand would be one of the worlds leaders in solar power and wind power

[dcutman]

With all the hydro electric dams being built and planned on the Mekong and it tributaries. I dont see how this will be much of a problem in ten years. But of course that will bring many more issues to the table.

[jamhar]

Its a difficult topic. being behind the energy curve, and wanting to become a manufacturing center, I dont see how TL can avoid nuclear power. If some can show me a practical way of getting there, i'd like to see it because with its contamination potential regardless of how remote the chance is, nuclear power should be avoided.

Coal, oil, natural gas, geothermal, hydroelectric, wind, solar, biofuel, and nuclear.

of these, the first 5 and nuclear are practical.

yes Germany is doing great things with solar, but its only available in the day. so you have to have the power plants for the dark periods, and its difficult to start and stop the boilers/turbines for power generation, so you would have to keep them running on standby even if you had solar.

TL has little to no geothermal I know of (please correct me if i'm wrong)

Hydroelectric - political problem,both domestic and foreign, plus limited potential

Nuclear - internal political issues

Wind - not reliable and low potential

biofuel - I dont know about TL's biomass potential.

That leaves the fossils of which we are running out, or can import at 3x the domestic cost.

Not a lot of options out there for TL

Am i missing something?

[h90]

Avoiding nuclear power is a very backward thinking. Sure, lets burn some more coal! Amazing Thailand.

But Thai maintenance, corruption when purchasing spare parts, etc etc..

I think only good if they import the staff from Russia as well.

[h90]

Its a difficult topic. being behind the energy curve, and wanting to become a manufacturing center, I dont see how TL can avoid nuclear power. If some can show me a practical way of getting there, i'd like to see it because with its contamination potential regardless of how remote the chance is, nuclear power should be avoided.

Coal, oil, natural gas, geothermal, hydroelectric, wind, solar, biofuel, and nuclear.

of these, the first 5 and nuclear are practical.

yes Germany is doing great things with solar, but its only available in the day. so you have to have the power plants for the dark periods, and its difficult to start and stop the boilers/turbines for power generation, so you would have to keep them running on standby even if you had solar.

TL has little to no geothermal I know of (please correct me if i'm wrong)

Hydroelectric - political problem,both domestic and foreign, plus limited potential

Nuclear - internal political issues

Wind - not reliable and low potential

biofuel - I dont know about TL's biomass potential.

That leaves the fossils of which we are running out, or can import at 3x the domestic cost.

Not a lot of options out there for TL

Am i missing something?

I think some solar would do well in Thailand: A lot sun results in increase demand because of the airconditions.

Less sun less aircons.

Night less aircon

raining less aircon.

Of course solar isn't the solution for every problem but a few % might be nice in Thailand.

[Payboy]

Time to buy BANPU shares.

[Payboy]

Avoiding nuclear power is a very backward thinking. Sure, lets burn some more coal! Amazing Thailand.

Would you really trust a Thai with something that could turn into a nuclear bomb? - I can see it now - "NO! Somchai I said DON'T press the red button!

Why not, Homer Simpson's doing alright in that job.

[jonclark]

Avoiding nuclear power is a very backward thinking. Sure, lets burn some more coal! Amazing Thailand.

Nuclear power is all well and good, but what will Thailand do with the spent fuel rods - Where will it store them? Or will they ship them to the UK or Japan for reprocessing.

[billd766]

Actually Thailand has a lot of very good engineers spread across many fields.

What it is poor at is middle and higher management.

What it has a surplus of is corrupt windbag politicians with no knowledge of the real world with a penchant for ignoring advice (face don't you know) and immensly deep magic pockets which can never be filled.

What Thailand ought to do is sell its rice on the world market at the lowest price they can without getting into trouble and run a special offer of one free politician with evey 10,000 tons of rice bought.

That could fix two problems at the same time.

[harrry]

As long as they do not import a certain red haired politician with the coal.

[dcutman]

Natural gas - proved reserves: 312.2 billion cu m (1 January 2011 est.)

Also, the country’s reserves vary depending on who you talk to. Myanmar’s proved gas reserves were placed at 11.8 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) at the end of 2010, or 0.2 percent of the world’s total according to the BP Statistical Review. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) lists Myanmar’s proved natural gas reserves as of 2010 at 10 Tcf, placing their gas reserve ranking at 37th globally. However, Myanmar is more hopeful. Myanmar’s Minister of Energy Than Htay said in January that his country’s natural gas reserves are at 22.5 Tcf.

I appears to be an abundance of natural gas not to far to the west. It has already been hypothesized that all this is propaganda by the govt. is to justify building of coal fired generators. Witch I tend to believe

[dcsw53]

The Thai government currently supports the building of “clean coal” technology to deal with the long-range problem of the natural gas running out, said Mr. Ditpong Potchana, vice governor of social affairs of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT).

There isno such thing as "clean" coal, just less dirty. CO₂ emissions from coal fired power stations, along with all the not so new cars on the roads should ensure Thailand worldclass status as a producer in a few years.

If cities in the north of China can be built CO₂ neutral then surely with the solar and wind conditions, supplemented with nuclear, we have we can cope ?

[Moruya]

2022 - Burma, Thailand with electricity

[ExpatOilWorker]

Ohhh no the sky is falling (again)!

Not to worry, the Oil Industry is here to rescue you. Just sign on the dotted line and we will get started with shale gas fracturing.

[BrianCR]

You would think that thailand would be one of the worlds leaders in solar power and wind power

Wind power? Thai Governments are full of it and...best of all "Thai Government Produces Natural Gas"

[Gulfsailor]

Fracking.... There are trillions of cu ft gas left.

The US knows this, and had started fracking for shale gas some years ago. Gas prices are going down rapidly as a result. Estimated reserve in Thailand is 500 trillion cu ft!

[Tanuki]

Thailand will never ever run out of natural gas as each successive government will be completely full of it!

Ahh you beat me to it mate! Was going to say Chalerm has 20 years worth inside of him alone.

[seminomadic]

Less conventional (at least at this time) sources should not be off the table:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power

[frimu]

Avoiding nuclear power is a very backward thinking. Sure, lets burn some more coal! Amazing Thailand.

Would you really trust a Thai with something that could turn into a nuclear bomb? - I can see it now - "NO! Somchai I said DON'T press the red button!

Mai pen rai :-)

[zakk9]

What's amazing is that gas for use in cars is subsidised and sold for an absurdly low price which again means there's little incentive to save gas and to develop an efficient transport system. Add to that the fact that houses and buildings with aircon mostly have little or no insulation and it's easy to see that they could make the gas last much longer if they really wanted to.

[Time Traveller]

Avoiding nuclear power is a very backward thinking. Sure, lets burn some more coal! Amazing Thailand.

Correct. Thinking backward to the past Japanese and American nuclear power station disasters has led policy makers to conclude that the future is safer with Thailand having it.

[OzMick]

There is no doubt that fossil fuels will run out, perhaps not in 10 years, but eventually. In the meanwhile, they become harder and more expensive to access, and the price of energy keeps climbing. The bad news is that the only viable alternatives currently are nuclear and hydro power stations.

Advocates of solar power will have to face the reality that the energy supplied is intermittent, though fairly predictable, expensive, requires huge areas of cells (which require regular cleaning to maintain efficiency) and there is no known means of storing the quantities of power needed to maintain a regular supply.

[Locationthailand]

What a ridiculous article. If ever Thailand ran out of Natural Gas sources the world is in oversupply. It means nothing.

[AleG]

Avoiding nuclear power is a very backward thinking. Sure, lets burn some more coal! Amazing Thailand.

Nuclear power is all well and good, but what will Thailand do with the spent fuel rods - Where will it store them? Or will they ship them to the UK or Japan for reprocessing.

The problem with nuclear power is that seems that almost everyone is stuck in the 50s, both pro and con.

Personally I believe that nuclear power from Thorium is the solution for the World's energy needs and environmental problems.

[thrilled]

They can import it from the US.I understand the US exports A large percentage of it.Americans would rather use high price gasoline than dirt cheap natural gas.And the US is like saudia arabia when it comes to natural gas.Go figure.