Myanmar to import fuel from Malaysia

Myanmar will import $ 250 mm worth of gasoline and diesel fuel from Malaysia's state-run oil company Petronas this year to meet growing domestic demand.
"In the last fiscal year (2003-2004) we imported $ 200 mm in fuel and we will increase it to $ 250 mm in the current fiscal year (2004-2005). We will buy it from Petronas," the deputy director of the Energy Ministry, Thein Lwin, was quoted as saying.

The report said the consumption of gasoline in Myanmar has increased to 440,280 kiloliters from 209,610 kl a decade ago, while the consumption of diesel fuel almost tripled to 1,510,650 kl from 504,270 liters during the same period.
Thein Lwin did not say if last fiscal year's imports were all from Petronas, but official sources said Petronas is the only company selling fuels to Myanmar in recent years.

Gasoline has been sold under a rationing system in Myanmar since the early 1980s, with each registered car allowed 9 liters of fuel a day at a subsidized price of 36 kyat (about 5 cents) aliter from state-run filling stations that are assigned according to the address of the car's registered owner.
The black-market price for gasoline is about eight times the subsidized price.