National oil and gas conglomerate PTT Plc is pushing ahead with non-oil businesses, which are set to become a new source of revenue and keep the company in line with the global trend towards clean energy.
The company wants to add value to its existing petrochemical business by focusing more on speciality polymer manufacturing, which promises high revenue from sales of high-margin products.
Auttapol Rerkpiboon, chief executive of PTT, said the company and its subsidiaries will continue to develop value-added products and grow PTT's new businesses.
Development of new businesses, including electric vehicles (EVs), EV batteries, renewable energy and hydrogen fuel, as well as medical products will go on despite rising prices of some raw materials.
"Everything we have done for our new S-curve businesses will pave the way for us to achieve a net profit target, making up 30% of total profits made by PTT Group within 2030," said Mr Auttapol as he shared ideas during a forum entitled "Big Corp CEOs Towards Businesses of the Future", held on Tuesday as part of a seminar on Thailand Economic Outlook 2023.
PTT aims to increase its power generation capacity from renewable energy sources to 12 gigawatts, up from 1GW at present, within 2030.
Further renewable energy development can be carried out more easily as the costs of solar modules are expected to decrease by around 10 times, down from US$2 million per megawatt, said Mr Auttapol.
He said PTT and its subsidiaries aim to achieve a net-zero target, a balance between greenhouse gas emissions and absorption, within 2050 through many projects, including more efficient use of energy and a reforestation programme covering 1 million rai.
PTT will continue its plan to build an EV assembly plant in the Eastern Economic Corridor area in cooperation with Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, a multinational electronics manufacturer.
On the subject of expensive energy prices, Mr Auttapol said he believed the prices had already peaked.
"Though gas and oil prices are expected to stay high, with frequent fluctuations, the prices will not be as high as those seen earlier this year," he said.
PTT has so far spent 17.8 billion baht supporting the government's measures to regulate the domestic prices of fuel, including liquefied petroleum gas and compressed natural gas, and relieving the financial burden of state-run Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand by extending the payback period for gas it purchased from PTT.
