Southeast Asian state-owned oil frms are set to boost upstream capital expenditure (capex) in 2020, far outpacing investment growth rates across the industry as they seek to exploit newly acquired assets and fuel their countries’ growing economies. Thai upstream frm PTTEP is leading the capex binge as it digests its acquisi- tion this year of US upstream frm Murphy Oil's Malaysian assets and prepares to take over operatorship of Thailand's two biggest natural gas blocks when their production-sharing contracts (PSCs) expire in 2022 and 2023. PTTEP says its capex budget will jump by 36pc to $2.65bn next year, while operating costs will climb by 21pc to $1.97bn. The new spending targets, announced this month, call for capex of $14.2bn over the next fve years, up from the $12.7bn target released last July.
展开▼
