Prepared for the National Identity Office by Energy Policy and Planning Office
With the advent of economic recovery after the 1997 economic crisis, Thailand’s energy consumption has remarkably increased. The GDP growth rate has continuously increased, reflected by the increasing growth rate of the industrial output index. The industrial sectors which have a high growth rate include the construction material sector and the automobile and transportation equipment sector. Particularly, automobile and motorcycle manufacturing for commercial purpose has continuously increased since early 2002.
Thailand’s commercial energy demand in 2002 totaled 1,283 thousand barrels per day of crude oil equivalent, an increase of 6.6% from the demand in 2001. The demand increased for all energy types, especially for natural gas and coal/lignite. The shares of commercial energy demand were the following: petroleum products, 46%; natural gas, 37%; coal/lignite, 14%; and electricity/import electricity, 3%.
The production of all types of commercial energy also increased by 6.2% to a level of 631 thousand barrels per day of crude oil equivalent. Crude oil production increased at a high rate of 22.1% since three new producing oil fields commenced operation, i.e. Maliwan of Chevron, Sangkajai of PTTEP and Yala which is one of the Big Oil Project of Unocal (comprising Plamuk, Kaphong, Surat and Yala fields). Natural gas production also increased at a rate of 4.5%.
Thailand’s net energy import increased by 5.5%, accounting for 795 thousand barrels per day of crude oil equivalent. One major factor was the import of natural gas from Myanmar, which increased by 24.5%. Crude oil import slightly decreased by 0.3%; the net import of condensate, petroleum products and electricity also decreased. However, the ratio of dependency on commercial energy import to the total domestic energy demand still remained at the level of 62%. There was still export of petroleum products since the refining capacity was in excess of the domestic demand.
In 2002, the final commercial energy demand increased by 11.9%, compared with the previous year. Lignite consumption increased by 8.7%, mainly by cement manufacturing which increased considerably resulting from the government measures stimulating immovable property, particularly housing, and hence continual expansion of construction business. Utilization of natural gas, imported coal, petroleum products and electricity increased by 11.9%, 13.2%, 5.8% and 6.7% respectively.