Future Outlooks For Cambodia

Cambodia has worked to develop their oil and gas industry which no doubt will have economic, environmental, and societal impacts on not just Cambodia but the world. However, through my research, I am left with the question, when will we see these effects? The Cambodian government has created agreements with many different oil and gas companies but are only in their infant stages of exploration or have completely stalled. The Cambodian government has recently retracted agreements because of the companies' failures to fulfill their commitments to drill wells. With this retraction, the government claims they are serious about companies fulfilling their sides of agreements and contracts. This also leaves the oil and gas Blocks open to other companies according to the government.

Yet, in my opinion, the likelihood of significant oil production anytime soon in Cambodia seems unlikely because of little progress in Blocks coupled with the liquidation of the most promising company for Cambodia's oil and gas industry (KrisEnergy). Although there seems to be little immediate progress, Cambodia still remains hopeful that its oil and gas industry will flourish. With that will come a host of economic, environmental, and societal impacts which I have been able to gain a better understanding of through the analysis of contracts between the oil and gas companies and the Cambodian government.