Myanmar Cooperates with Russia and India to Develop Myanmar’s Oil and Gas Resources

A Myanmar newspaper said that Myanmar, Russia and Indian oil companies have unanimously agreed to explore and produce an oil and gas block in the Mottama sea area of Myanmar.

According to the production sharing contract signed by Myanmar National Oil Company, Russia's JSC Zarubezhneft Itera Oil and Gas Company and India's Sun Group, the three companies will cooperate in oil and gas exploration and production in Block M-8 in the Mottama Sea.

This is the first time that Russia has participated in oil and gas development in Myanmar, while India's ONGC Videsh and GAIL have cooperated with South Korea's Daewoo and Korea Gas Corporation to develop natural gas in blocks A-1 and A-3 on the western coast of Myanmar's Rakhine. In the project, Daewoo holds 60%, ONGC Videsh holds 20%, and GAIL and Korea Gas hold 10% each.

Negotiations on a natural gas pipeline project for India to import natural gas from these two blocks in Myanmar to Bengal, India, are still ongoing. Daewoo said the two blocks are estimated to contain 5.7-10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Myanmar has very rich natural gas reserves, especially offshore. Including 3 major offshore oil and gas fields and 19 onshore oil and gas fields, the country's proven natural gas reserves reach 18.012 trillion cubic feet. Myanmar’s total offshore and onshore natural gas storage is estimated to be 89.722 trillion cubic feet. According to official statistics, Myanmar's crude oil reserves are estimated at 3.2 billion barrels.

Myanmar's official data shows that in the first 11 months of the 2005-06 fiscal year (April to February of the following year), Myanmar's crude oil production reached 728.1 barrels, and its natural gas production reached 10.53 billion cubic meters. During the same period, natural gas export volume reached 8.06 billion cubic meters, and export value reached US$942 million.

More statistics show that from the end of 1988, when Myanmar opened to foreign investment, to January this year, the total investment by foreign companies in Myanmar's oil and gas industry reached 2.635 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for the majority of the country's foreign investment. Foreign companies involved in the oil and gas industry in Myanmar are mainly from Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand.