A group of government officials and representatives from community organizations and network groups have organized themselves to form a coalition against any oil exploration and drilling concessions off the waters of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao.

The new activist organization, called Siam Gulf Preservation Network Group (SGPNG), is headed by Samui Mayor Ramnet Jaikwang.

After presiding the organizational meeting of its steering committee recently, the mayor said the group will lead a rally on July 31 to express strong opposition against plans to drill oil off Samui and other islands nearby.

The committee – represented by officers and members of the Tourism Association of Koh Samui, the Thai Hotels Association (Southern Chapter, East Coast- Samui), the Tourism Association of Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, the Green Island Foundation and other community-based groups – claimed that the mass action will receive full public support and muster at least 35,000 residents from Samui, Phangan, Koh Tao and Suratthani.

During the rally, participants will link hands to form a continuous human chain along Koh Samui’s 52-kilometer Ring Road.

“The purpose of this huge collective expression of solidarity is to inform the government, the Thai people and other countries that the overwhelming public opinion in turn to southern region is fully against the Department of Petroleum granting permission for oil exploration and drilling in the territory of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, which could have a disastrously negative impact on the entire region’s tourism and fishing industries and with possible knock-on effects to be experienced in Suratthani, Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Chumpon and even places as far as Phuket, Krabi and Phang-Nga,” the group said.

The steering committee has called for the withdrawal of the government’s grant to the project and requested a meeting with the Department of Petroleum to discuss possible energy production alternatives that would not potentially threaten the region’s thriving tourism industry.

The coalition is an offshoot of a conservation group, comprising about 300 members from the local travel and tourism industry, along with local environmentalists, which protested right from the start against the planned offshore oil exploration.

The core group forced the abandonment of a public hearing on the proposed project with a blunt message to the government to choose between tourism and drilling for oil. Protest leader Thanongsak Somwong, chairman of the Rak Chaweng environmental conservation group, sent a protest letter to Mayor Ramnet, claiming many local residents were also opposed to the oil-drilling project.

The project, backed by the national government, allows exploration and drilling about 42 kilometers (26 miles) off the resort island by Thai company Nucoastal, a wholly owned subsidiary of UK publicly listed Coastal Energy Company (CEO).

Nucoastal is the licensed operator of offshore concession Block G5/43 off Songkhla, where its offshore operations are run from. The Rak Chaweng group has called on Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to order the minister responsible for granting oil drilling concessions to review or scrap the exploration project.

The group, conscious of the increasing value of ecotourism, fears a repeat of the recent disastrous BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

”The government should promote energy projects friendly to the environment,” it said.

Though the group managed to cause the meeting to be abandoned, reports said the proposal is yet to be cancelled, amended or reviewed. Protesters cited the results of the recent BP spill and said that despite the promises that oil companies give and even with the best of intentions, accidents can and do happen.

They also said other implications of rigs near the tourist islands were related to noise, pollution and disturbance to the already fragile marine ecosystem. “It is a call to arms to everyone who loves Samui and who cares about our future to protect our island from potential disaster,” the group said in its appeal for support.

A senior energy ministry official, however, was quoted by a Bangkokbased media entitiy last week saying the ongoing oil exploration in the Gulf of Thailand, designed to cope with Thailand’s rising demand for oil and gas, would enable the country to enjoy energy self sufficiency and that it was safe and posed no negative impact on environment as feared by tourism operators.

“Oil exploration and production in the Gulf have been conducted for over 35 years and there is a need for exploration to continue as Thailand wants to depend less on oil imports, and produces only 40 percent of its total consumption,” said Kurujit Nakhonthap, director general of the Mineral Fuels Department.

The official reasoned that oil exploration in the Gulf was different from that being carried out in the Gulf of Mexico as the exploration there is 40-100 nautical miles offshore at a depth of 30 80 meters along with low pressure and installation of blowout preventers and safety valves.