The Thai government approved a new deal for Thai and Malaysian state firms to buy gas from an offshore block in their offshore joint development area after both firms missed the deadline in their first contract.

The pact, which needs the Malaysian cabinet’s nod, would waive an $860-million fine that both state oil and gas firms would have had to pay for failing to buy the gas from September 2002, said a Thai cabinet paper.
The new arrangement had postponed the first purchasing date Malaysia’s Petronas and Thailand’s PTT PCL  would buy the gas from the operator of the offshore Block A-18 in the Gulf of Thailand to January 1, 2005, said the document.
The gas seller in Block A-18 consists of a joint venture between Thai and Malaysian governments called the MTJA and a joint venture between Malaysia’s Petronas Carigali and  US gas firm Amerada Hess, which operates the block.