Last week I returned from a whirlwind trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I was honored to be a keynote speaker on the subject of petroleum legislation at a UNDP-sponsored conference on “Fueling Poverty Reduction with Oil and Gas Revenues”. The conference was attended by well over 350 participants from Cambodia, the neighboring countries, international oil companies and international experts. It was a huge success with daily press coverage and maximum publicity.

Getting there was no fun. I sat 13+ hours on the flight to Tokyo and then changed planes to Bangkok for another 6 hours. I left at 1:00 PM on Sunday and arrived in Bangkok at midnight on Monday. A stroke of good luck was that United’s outgoing flight from Washington Dulles was delayed, so to prevent me from missing my connection in Tokyo Narita, they put me on Japan’s ANA instead. Business Class on ANA is much better than anything United has!

After a good night’s sleep at the Novotel Airport Hotel in Bangkok, I took the 50 minute flight on to Phnom Penh at 6:00 PM on Tuesday. Upon arrival I was pleasantly surprised by a small but modern airport, rapid and efficient immigration procedures (I had an invitation letter from UNDP) and hassle free cab service to the InterContinental Hotel, where the conference would be held during the next several days. A nice, lavish hotel with all amenities.

The conference opened with me in the receiving line to meet the Deputy Prime Minister and other Cambodian dignitaries. It was the first time that I had been treated as a VIP since I retired from the World Bank 7 years ago. I was slotted in neatly between the British and Norwegian Ambassadors. That was fun! Then after the national anthem and opening remarks and addresses, I got up to give my 20 minute PowerPoint presentation to a room full of attendees. Nothing too daunting, though. I had done similar things so many times before. It all went very well, in any event.

Cambodia has no petroleum production as yet, but it’s hopes are high. Chevron – my old company – has drilled several discovery wells offshore in Block A, but it has not yet released any definitive results as yet. It is estimated/hoped that they have encountered somewhere between 500 and 700 million barrels. Unfortunately, the geology of the area is difficult and the recovery factor would only be 10-15%, rather than a more normal 40-50%+. But even so, it would still add over $1 billion to the Cambodian economy, which is sorely needed. There are severe shortages in-country of their staple rice crop, as well as of cooking gas and cooking oil. The Prime Minister banned rice exports to protect the national supply and imposed price controls on other commodities – all in just the week that I was there. I read in the Daily Cambodian that restaurants in Phnom Penh were closing because they couldn’t afford cooking gas or oil, both of which had doubled in price in only a few days. Cambodia had been ravaged by 25+ years of civil war and strife and it is now trying gallantly now to find a new national identity and stability.

One evening we were all taken out to dinner at a new hotel, right along banks where the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers converge. A nice place with a prime location. But it was hot, humid and buggy as the evening wore on. I did some networking and struck up a conversation with the Minister of Commerce. A man in his late 40s/early 50s who was well-dressed, spoke impeccable English and had been educated at Stanford. He told me that his daughter had just been accepted at Cal Berkeley and Georgetown and that she was in the process of deciding where to go. The Minister planned to bring her to DC to see Georgetown. So, as an old Emeritus Adjunct Professor of the Law Center, I volunteered to show them around when they came. We exchanged cards and then he gave me a welcome ride back to the InterContinental in his official black Mercedes S Class limousine.

After the conference ended a few of us were asked to go to the National Assembly to reprise our presentations and advice for a group of key parliamentarians. These would be the people whom, amongst other things, would have to consider and pass the petroleum law, about which I had spoken at the conference. They listened with rapt attention and then asked some very good questions. The Chairman was particularly interested in some follow-up training to be able better to assess draft Petroleum Laws which may be presented to the National Assembly for consideration. I told him about our twice-yearly CWC training course in London, “World Legal Systems and Contracts for Oil & Gas”, which I teach along with my good friend, Jay Park, of Macleod Dixon in Calgary. While it would be very expensive to send Cambodian participants to London, it would certainly be possible to bring our course to Phnom Penh for 40-50 participants. We’ve done this for Pemex and Repsol in Mexico and will do so this June for WAPO/Sonogol in Luanda, Angola. So I left that thought with the Chairman, along with the same suggestion to the directors of the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority and their UNDP sponsors. Let’s see what develops.

On the way home I stopped in Bangkok again and saw my good friend at Chevron, Nancy Wildman. Nancy is a geologist posted in Thailand for 3 years. I met her on an earlier Wilderness Travel trip to Tibet. She’s a good strong hiker and a lot of fun. Nancy came to get me at the Novotel with her driver and we headed downtown to Wat Arun, “The Temple of Dawn”, on the banks of the Chao Phyra River. There we rented a long-tail boat were cruised through some of the nearby canals, or “klongs”, along which people live and work. Very scenic. I remember doing it years before with my brother, Richard. It was a very hot afternoon, so after the klong cruise, we went over to the posh Mandarin Oriental Hotel (where I used to stay in my World Bank days) and had a few beers in their delightful river garden. Then we headed back to Nancy’s neighborhood for a nice dinner.

As left I Bangkok early the next morning for the long haul home, I hoped that something would come of bringing our training course to Phnom Penh. It had been a quick but fruitful visit. I hadn’t had time to go to Siem Riep and see the incomparable Angkor Wat. But I would certainly like to return next year to do it all.