Energy
Tevin bemoans low Thai competitiveness
Tevin Vongvanich, the new president and chief executive of PTT Plc, has vowed to make the national oil and gas firm a key player in improving Thailand’s competitiveness. “We drove our economy without creating any innovation or productivity improvement for a long time, while other emerging countries ...
Villagers in Thailand who claim illness, crop damage from gas drilling see complaints ignored
More than 100 students and villagers crowded into a northeast Thailand college forum to hear about American gas companies conducting drilling operations in their region. A lieutenant colonel and dozens of soldiers and police officers followed them in. The armed police began photographing members of the ...
Vietnam's oil exploitation output likely to increase by 4.6% this year
According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam`s crude oil exploitation output in 2015 is estimated to reach 17.58 million tonnes, rising 4.6% from the annual target of the government. The ministry also made a forecast that the crude oil output in 2016 would decline ...
Dam threat to Mekong River’s last few dolphins
The fate of the last surviving Irrawaddy river dolphins on the Laos-Cambodian border hangs in the balance after a Laos government official was reported as saying this week that construction of the dam would begin by the end of the year.Keep reading ...
NGOs, Cambodia voice alarm at Lao decision to proceed with Don Sahong Dam
Cambodian officials vowed on 11 September to prevent neighbor Laos from going ahead with construction of the controversial Don Sahong dam without approval from fellow Mekong River basin countries that would be affected by the project. The Phnom Penh officials, as well as local and international non-governmental ...
Environment experts discuss dam dangers
Thirty-five experts from environmental organisations in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam gathered on 8 September to discuss water management and the effects of hydropower dams. They participated in a one-day seminar held in Vietnam’s Dong Thap Province in the Mekong Delta and discussed the impacts that dams ...
Vietnam eyes lower transport prices
The Ministry of Transport is investigating transport companies who have failed to lower prices amid a drop in petrol costs. Since many transport firms have been slow to reduce their fees even after recent hefty petrol price cuts, the ministry has asked local transport departments to ...
Green light for Mekong ‘time bomb’ sparks alarm
Environmental groups have expressed alarm at the Laotian National Assembly’s approval of the concession for the Don Sahong Dam project, which has been described as an “ecological time bomb” about to be dropped on the Mekong River. The Laotian government and the project’s developer, Malaysia’s MegaFirst ...
Laos officially approves controversial dam project
Laos’ parliament has approved the concession agreement for a controversial dam project, with construction expected to begin before the end of 2015, media sources reported earlier this week. Keep reading ...
Government calls for lower fuel prices
The government on 3 September asked fuel retailers to lower petroleum prices, so as to reflect the drop in global prices in the last few months. At a meeting chaired by Chhoun Dara, a secretary of state at the Commerce Ministry, oil companies were given a week ...