‘No impact on PTT’s imports from Saudi oil attack’

THAILAND’S Minister of f Energy Sontirat Sontijirawong wong said Saturday’s drone attacks acks on two major oil-processing ssing facilities run by Saudi Arabia’s abia’s state-owned firm Aramco mco would not affect oil imports ports of the PTT group.

He said he had learned from Aramco and related parrties that the situation there was under control and the damage was being assessed.

The incident would not affect the oil depots, which ich supply crude oil to Thailand’s and’s oil and gas conglomerate PTT, said Sontirat (pictured, Supplied).

The ministry is keeping itsel itself abreast of the situation and an has already devised a back-up plan. He assured that the country had sufficient suf supply for the short-term shortif the attack led to severe sev impact on Saudi Arabia’s Arabia oil exports. Last week w the ministry asked a six refineries nationwide to start reporting their reserves, reserv production, tion and oil purchases chas on a daily basis, bas from the pre previous practice of monthly reports, in a move to prevent oil supply shortage.

It added that the country’s oil reserves were enough for 30 to 45 days if there was a supply shortage.

The drone attack reportedly cut Saudi Arabia’s output by around 5.7 million barrels per day or five per cent of the total global oil production.

Anusorn Thammajai, director of Rangsit University’s Institute of Economics, warned that if Saudi Arabia counterattacked, the situation could worsen and that would put pressure on global and Thailand’s oil price, Anusorn said.

The global oil price could jump by between $5 and $10 per barrel next week. If the baht remains strong, this could assuage the impact from the pressure on local retail oil price to a certain degree.

If the drone attack led to a prolonged military action, this might affect global oil supply and result in protracted high oil price. If so this would exacerbate the ailing global economy, he warned.