Andaman Sea Oil & Gas Exploration Offshore India, Thailand, Myanmar, and Malaysia: Sparse Geological Data, but Thailand Will Need More Domestic Gas in the Future

     Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, in that order, are the largest natural gas-producing countries in Southeast Asia. However, in Thailand, gas production has been declining since 2018, and there is a need for more domestic supply. In 2024, domestic supply only met half of domestic demand, with the other half coming from imported pipelined gas and LNG. Power demand is rising in Thailand, and natural gas is the preferred energy source for the power grid. The mature Gulf of Thailand area supplies most of the country’s domestic gas, but fields there are in decline. A new area of interest for natural gas exploration is the Andaman Sea area off the southern coast of the country. The Andaman Sea is also being considered by India, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Malaysia, all of which have exploration rights. Wood Mackenzie’s Angus Rodger wrote about Andaman Sea potential and recent developments.

“The Thai government hopes that licencing its interests in the Andaman Sea and/or the Thai/Cambodia Overlapping Claims Area (OCA) can unlock new gas resources to lessen reliance on imported LNG.”

     Developing the OCA is likely complicated by the current border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia. There are plans for a new bidding round for exploration in the offshore blocks of the Southern Andaman in 2026. Gas is expected to remain Thailand’s power growth vehicle since coal is unpopular and renewables are developing more slowly than expected (a common issue around the world due to cost and performance).

“Over one billion barrels of oil equivalent have been discovered in the Indonesian part of the Andaman since 2022, while ONGC and Oil India are both conducting multi-well offshore exploration campaigns around the Andaman Islands. In Malaysia the regulator this year awarded a working study of its neighbouring Langkasuka  basin to Eni, TotalEnergies, BP, PTTEP, PETRONAS and PERTAMINA.”

     Challenges to developing the Andaman Sea area include a lack of clear financial and pricing terms and incentives for explorers and a lack of geological data. Below are some developments going on in the area.

     The UAE's Mubadala Energy made a big natural gas discovery in the Andaman Sea area in December 2023, which I posted about. This was in the North Sumatra Basin, adjacent to Thailand's Andaman Sea acreage. 

     For Thailand, a major concern is that a growing share of its gas will come from LNG, which is more expensive than domestic or pipelined gas and also involves more price volatility. Below are some projections of Thai gas production and its decline.

    

 

 

References:

 

Can Andaman Sea resources avert Thailand’s gas crisis/crunch? As the region attracts new interest from explorers, Thailand hopes licencing can unlock new re-sources. Angus Rodger. Wood Mackenzie. November 12, 2025. Can Andaman Sea resources avert Thailand’s gas crisis/crunch? | Wood Mackenzie