Thai court to decide on stalled Mab Ta Phut projects on 2 Sept

27 August 2010 08:36  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Thailand’s Central Administrative Court conducted a hearing on Thursday that will decide the fate of the stalled petrochemical projects in Mab Ta Phut, a source from PTT said on Friday.

“The court is just listening to the closing speeches from each party. They announced that the ruling will be on the second of September,” said the source.

The Ministry of Natural Resources of Thailand has yet to formally adopt the list put forth on Monday by the National Environmental Board on what constitutes “harmful industries”, which excluded downstream petrochemical projects, she said.

PTT, the biggest oil and gas producer in Thailand, still has 17 projects pending court approval to proceed, said the source.

NEB just cleared up the definition of “harmful industries”, restricting them to 11, effectively releasing downstream petrochemical projects from the suspension blanket.

But the court approval would be the final stamp needed for these stalled projects to proceed, the source said.

The Central Administrative Court had suspended 76 projects in Rayong province in September 2009 on grounds of environmental pollution as stipulated in Article 67 of the Thai Constitution.

It was a ruling upheld in December last year by the Supreme Administrative Court on 65 projects but some projects had been cleared to proceed since the start of this year.

Some of the projects of Thai conglomerate Siam Cement Group in Mab Ta Phut were also included in the list of projects under suspension.

Among the 17 PTT projects, only the one involving monoethylene glycol may not get immediate approval and may be required to complete certain requirements like health impact assessments (HIA), the PTT source said.

PTT is currently conducting HIAs on all 24 projects that were initially suspended and should complete the process in November, the source added.

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By: Pearl Bantillo
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