KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (Reuters) - Thailand's PTTExploration and Production (PTTEP) is looking closerto home for upstream oil and gas assets in a drive to boost itsreserves and production as oil prices have recovered, a seniorcompany executive said on Wednesday.
"Now we're coming back more to the region. We're goodfriends with (Malaysia's) Petronas, but we didn't really dothings together. Now we have more collaboration and we have aproject to work together," Phongsthorn Thavisin, PTTEP'spresident of exploration and production, said on the sidelinesof the OTC Asia conference.
PTTEP has invested in 10 percent of Train 9 of MLNG and isexploring offshore block SK410B in Sarawak with Petronas, hesaid.
PTTEP is also in the second round of bidding for a stake inanother offshore Sarawak block, SK316, seeking a 10-20 percentshare, Phongsthorn said.
Last year, state-owned Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas)kicked off a process to sell a stake of up to 49percent, worth an estimated $1 billion, in the SK316 offshoregas block in Malaysia's Sarawak state.
Besides PTTEP, Total and some Japanese firms arealso among those keen to bid for the asset, sources have said.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Additional reporting by ChayutSetboonsarng in BANGKOK; Editing by Tom Hogue)
