Unocal Corp. set for first Asian listing

Unocal Corp. set for first Asian listing

SINGAPORE (AFP): U.S.-based energy giant Unocal Corp., ahead of its maiden listing in Asia, said yesterday it will pour billions of dollars into new oil, natural gas and geothermal exploration projects in the region.

"The projects on the pipeline will cost billions of dollars. To use stock market terminology, we are very bullish on Asia," Unocal chief executive officer Roger Beach told reporters.

Apart from new on- and off-shore natural gas projects eyed by Unocal in China, Vietnam and Cambodia, the company would extend its presence in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar, Beach said.

"For competitive reasons, I can't go into specifics at this time," he said after signing an agreement with the Stock Exchange of Singapore for Unocal to make a secondary listing on the bourse.

"We expect the listing on the exchange in Singapore will heighten our profile in the region and expand the opportunity for investors in Southeast Asia to participate in our growth," Beach said.

Trading here of the company's shares, which has primary listings in the United States and Switzerland, will begin today.

Beach said Unocal's gas production in Thailand was expected to increase to between 900 million and 950 million cubic feet (25 million and 27 million cubic metres) a day by the June quarter when a second pipeline to shore comes on stream.

Unocal at present operates eight gas producing offshore fields in three contract areas in Thailand -- the company's largest development project outside the United States -- with production averaging more than 700 million cubic feet (19.8 million cubic metres) a day.

Unocal would also begin exploration work with French firm Total later this year on "significant" additional gas projects near the giant Yadana gas field offshore Myanmar, he said.

The US$1 billion Yadana project is a joint venture among Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, the Petroleum Authority of Thailand, Unocal and Total, which serves as an operator.

Unocal's oil and gas reserves totaled two billion barrels of oil-equivalent at the end of 1994. Almost half its gas reserves are in Southeast Asia, where Unocal has invested nearly $8.6 billion so far.

In Indonesia, Unocal is exploring three additional geothermal energy prospects in the Sarulla field off Sumatra island after its first discovery in May, Beach said.

Last year, the first 100 megawatts of power generation came on line at Unocal's Salak project south of Jakarta and Beach said the second phase of development would increase generating capacity to 330 megawatts by 1997.

Unocal's projects in Indonesia together with those in the Philippines account for 70 percent of its geothermal reserves.