Auditor-General Pisit Leelavachiropas has insisted that the offshore gas pipelines PTT Plc uses are state property and must be returned to the state.
PTT's gas production platform in the Gulf of Thailand (photo by Nauvarat Suksamran)
Mr Pisit said on Monday the offshore pipelines were public property because they were on the high seas.
The Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) already sent the confirmation to the Finance Ministry, the Council of State, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the cabinet secretariat, the Administrative Court and PTT.
Mr Pisit said that the NCPO agreed with the OAG.
In 2007 the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that PTT had to return the gas pipelines it acquired when it was a state enterprise, before its privatisation in 2001.
PTT returned some onshore pipelines worth 16.1 billion baht. Mr Pisit said PTT had yet to return other onshore pipelines and offshore pipelines worth 32.6 billion baht to the state, to completely comply with the court's ruling.
Nuttachat Charuchinda, PTT's chief operating officer for upstream petroleum and gas business, said PTT was waiting for an opinion from the Council of State, the government's legal advisory body.