A resident at Samui Island has started an online petition via Change.org, asking the Ministry of Energy to suspend coastal offshore drilling around the island as well as Angthong National Park, Tao Island and Phag-Nga Island.
Danai Thongsin – a Nonthaburi native who has been working at a Samui hotel for almost a decade – wrote in the petition that he wanted the drilling projects to be moved into deeper waters. Danai said that giant petroleum companies such as PTT Exploration and Production PCL, Salamander Energy and CEC International, might start their projects in late April.
“If they are really staring the projects, marine life will be exposed to the threat of oil spills,” Danai wrote.
Danai believed that the environmental contamination would destroy the islands’ tourism trade, the main source of income for their local people.
Danai and the Save Samui, Phan-Nga and Tao network will submit their signatures to the relevant agencies and companies next month.
