Cambodia stops oil production but retains promising undersea rights

Territorial talks with neighboring Thailand could hold the key to future exports

20210719 Hun Sen abd Apsara Cambodia Block A

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has tried to turn his country into ASEAN's eighth oil producer, so far with little success. (Source photos by AP and screenshot from KrisEnergy's YouTube page)

TORU TAKAHASHI, Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Headquarters for Asia

July 23, 2021 14:26 JST

BANGKOK -- Cambodia saw its dream of becoming the eighth oil producer among the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations fizzle out in less than six months.

Singapore-based KrisEnergy, which operates the Apsara oil field in the Gulf of Thailand off Sihanoukville, in southern Cambodia, announced on June 4 that it had filed for liquidation. The company said at the time that output had remained less than half its initial estimate of 7,500 barrels a day since it started production on Dec. 29, 2020, leaving it unable to repay its debts.