Myanmar gas discovery brightens economic future

The discovery of a new natural gas reservoir could make Myanmar a major exporter in the next five years amid growing regional demand, a senior official was quoted as saying.
The gas reserves off Myanmar's north-western Rakhine state in the Bay of Bengal opened up "a whole new vista of exploration activities," Soe Myint, director general of the Energy Planning Department, was quoted as saying. Soe Myint said commercial production of natural gas in Block A-1 was expected to begin in 2006-2007.

Soe Myint was quoted as saying that South Korea's Daewoo International -- a major partner of the Korean-Indian consortium that discovered Block A-1 -- has been awarded the contract to explore another block in the area. India's GAIL and China National Offshore Oil Corporation were interested in exploring other blocks off Rakhine's coast as well, Soe Myint said.
Myanmar currently produces natural gas from two other reserves. The Yadana gas field in the Gulf of Martaban, which began production in 1998, exports 600 mm cf (17 mm cm) a day to Thailand. The Yetagun gas field off the Tanintharyi coast, which began production in 2000, exports about 300 mm cf (8.50 mm cm) a day. Exports are expected to increase between 380 mm and 400 mm cf (10.76 mm and 11.33 mm cm) a day, Soe Myint said.

He said the failure by other major gas-producing countries in Southeast Asia to find new reserves, as well as the development of interregional gas pipelines, was working in Myanmar's favour.
While the consumption of natural gas in the Asia-Pacific region is growing, no new substantial reserves have been discovered in the past 10 years by major producing countries such as Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, he said.