Thailand monitors Iraqi impacts on oil prices

BANGKOK, June 17 (TNA) - Thailand's Ministry of Energy, oil producers and traders are monitoring impacts of violence in Iraq on oil prices. Pailin Chuchottaworn, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President of PTT Public Company Limited (PTT), told journalists on Tuesday that he is concerned over the ongoing violent situation in Iraq despite Iraqi government forces' attempts to protect domestic energy sources, as the opponent Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group is occupying areas in Iraq. Pailin said that local investors share the same concern on the declining amount of oil exports from Iraq, which is the second largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Pailin acknowledged that PTT refineries have not bought oil from Iraq, and that he has told his subordinates to follow up relevant developments closely. According to the PTT top executive, global oil prices have, however, made their new high in ten months, which will eventually affect Thai oil prices. Meanwhile, Thai Air Force Chief and National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Deputy Chief Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong, who oversees economic affairs, was reported by PTT, Thailand's largest petroleum firm, on possible impacts of the violent situation in Iraq and he is scheduled to convene a meeting to prepare measures to cope with the possible impacts. As the NCPO pays attention to renewable energy, Air Chief Marshal Prajin and members of his energy policy committee visited Nakhon Si Thammarat Province in the Thai South on June 16 to inspect the biggest raw palm oil plant, biogas production and biogas-fired electricity generating facilities. (TNA)