Salamander upbeat on finding black gold and gas in commercial quantities

( KPL- 17.11.09 ) England-owned Salamander Company would carry out commercial drilling for oil and gas in Saravane province in early 2010 and this would be possible because it had just reached an agreement to buy drilling equipment from a Thai company in Thailand.

Mr Phonkeo Phoutthapayalad, Head of Energy and Mining Office, Savannakhet provinces disclosed yesterday that the commercial drilling operation would commence in January 2010 in Nakhonpheng district, Saravane province, located on the fringe of the two provinces.

Salamander carried out exploratory drilling work in 2008 in Savannakhet province and discovered oil and for similar operations in Savannakhet it found oil and gas. While such prospecting work was meant to be carried out throughout the year but it had to go into recess during the rainy months of this year and at present it was waiting for the transportation of the drilling equipment and setting it up at the site for the task of drilling for the black gold, said Mr Phonkeo.

For many years Laos suffered from budget deficit and one of the reasons was that it had to pay for the import of oil and gas and so when this English company discovered oil and gas in Laos, the Lao government was upbeat on producing its own energy for use within the country and thereby reduce its dependence on buying oil and gas from the world’s market at sky high prices.

The Energy and Mining Office in the two neighbouring provinces, Saravane and Savannakhet, told KPL News yesterday that oil was discovered in Phine district of Savannakhet province and oil and gas in two locations, Natheun and Naphabang, Nakhonpheng district, Saravane.

The commercial drilling operation suffered a delay because the England Survey Company used drilling equipment from Vietnam which did not function efficiently as they were meant for offshore drilling and not for land based drilling work.

However, taking the worst scenario into account, so that the proper drilling equipment could not be acquired, the company would intensify its work on oil and gas exploration.

Mr Vaikhoun Tai-in, a Lao mines official in Saravane province, said that in early 2010, Salamander Company would construct an access road to two villages, Natheun and Naphabang.

“We think there is a 20 per cent chance of discovering commercial oil and gas deposits in Saravane province but we would have a much better idea as soon as we get the results of analysis of samples from our exploratory drills from the laboratories in the USA” said Mr Vaikhoun.

“If we get new drilling equipment soon we can resume the work in January 2010 and we plan to drill up to a depth of 3,000-4,000 metres of depth” he said.

The energy explorers suspected that the area around the two villages in Nakhonpheng district had commercial quantities of oil and natural gas and this site would be where they would be concentrating their exploratory drills.

KPL Lao News Agency