Following the continuous gathering of workers along Sukhumvit Road in front of Thai Oil’s Refinery in Si Racha District, Chonburi Province from 24 – 26 July 2024, due to non-payment from contractors, an inquiry by Thai Oil Public Company Limited (the “Company”) revealed that the workers are employees of One Turn Ten Company Limited (“One Turn Ten”), EMCO LTD (Thailand) Company Limited (“EMCO”), and Thai Fong Engineering and Construction Company Limited (“Thai Fong”). These three companies are subcontractors of Sinopec Engineering Group (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (“Sinopec”), which in turn is a subcontractor of the Unincorporated Joint Venture of Petrofac South East Asia Pte. Ltd. (“Petrofac”), Saipem Singapore Pte. Ltd. (“Saipem”), and Samsung E&A (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (formerly Samsung Engineering (Thailand) Co., Ltd.) (“Samsung”) (collectively, the “UJV”). The UJV is the main contractor for the construction of the Clean Fuel Project (CFP) for the Company, and the workers have gathered to demand payment for their services from the three companies (One Turn Ten, EMCO, Thai Fong), as well as from Sinopec and the UJV. The three companies did not receive payment from Sinopec, and Sinopec itself has not received payment as per the relevant subcontract from the UJV, leading to Sinopec’s inability to pay the subcontractors, including the aforementioned three companies.
The Company has duly paid the UJV according to the terms of the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract. However, the UJV has subcontracted approximately 60 subcontractors, including Sinopec. Therefore, the responsibility to settle the overdue payments and ensure that the workers return to work as normal lies with the subcontractor (Sinopec) and the UJV.
The Company is aware of the difficulties faced by the workers and has coordinated ongoing discussions among workers' representatives from the subcontractors, relevant government agencies, subcontractors' representatives, and UJV representatives. During the negotiation on 26 July, despite no agreement being reached among the relevant parties, the Company was informed that a mutual understanding of the situation was achieved among these parties and that an agreement is likely to be reached. Another negotiation is scheduled for today (30 July 2024). After being updated on the progress and the next scheduled meeting, the workers left the gathering at 20:30 hrs. on 26 July 2024.
Today (30 July 2024), the workers have gathered again to await updates from the joint meeting involving Sinopec, UJV, employers of the workers, government representatives, and labour representatives to negotiate and resolve the overdue payments. The Company has taken measures to maintain security at the Thai Oil Refinery with personnel in place and is cooperating with government agencies to prepare emergency plans and deploy personnel for 24-hour surveillance, strictly controlling entry and exit to ensure the gathering remains orderly, safe, and minimises the impact on the surrounding community.