Fracking a problem for SE Asia

Impoverished countries hoping to strike it rich by developing their limited oil and gas reserves are being urged to move quickly or risk having their expectations clipped by fracking, which is depressing market prices while adding life to fields once thought exhausted. … The Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia had intended to bolster their bottom lines through yet-to-be-developed offshore oil and gas reserves. … Fracking in the US has also led to an oversupply of liquefied natural gas, resulting in price falls of more than a third between 2008 and 2012. Major energy producers like Australia, Canada and Russia are following the US lead with oil and gas once trapped in shale deposits now being accessed and fields once thought spent being re-opened. As a result, politically difficult countries like Cambodia East Timor and Papua New Guinea are becoming much less attractive than they were five years ago when the price of oil was at its peak. … Turning positive exploration results from the Gulf of Thailand into a thriving commercial industry has also proved difficult amid maritime border disputes and control over oil acreages between Cambodia and Thailand. The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding for joint management of the Overlapping Claims Area (OCA) in 2001. A joint working group held talks until 2007, and two years later management of the OCA was put on hold by Thailand. …

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022561573/Business/fracking-a-problem-for-se-asia.html