Exxon Mobil Corporation eyes new mega-project in Thai East

BANGKOK, March 13 (TNA) - US-based Exxon Mobil Corporation plans to invest in a mega-project in the Thai East and to establish its regional investment hub in the Thai Kingdom. Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak told journalists of the update on March 12, saying that Exxon Mobil Corporation's visiting Senior Vice President Jack P. Williams expressed the intention while meeting with him at Bangkok's Government House on March 12. Somkid revealed that the multinational oil and gas giant wants to open an about 200 billion-baht ethylene cracker plant on a 600-800 rai plot of land in the Thai East (about 0.96-1.28 square kilometers) in the Thai East, the size of which will be comparable to its plant in the United States. According to the deputy premier, Exxon Mobil Corporation plans to use the new plant for the production of hydrocarbon compounds from petroleum or natural gas for exports, including ethylene, propylene and benzene. The deputy prime minister stressed that Exxon Mobil Corporation also wants to have Thailand as its investment hub in the region, rather than other countries in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in which the company might decide to relocate as an alternative if the planned project in the Thai economy could not be proceeded. (TNA)