India scouts for exploration projects in Myanmar
Thursday, 01 May 2003, 19:30 IST   |    1 Comments
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NEW DELHI: India is scouting for more oil and gas exploration prospects in neighbouring Myanmar. A delegation of officials from India's petroleum ministry and top oil firms visited the hydrocarbon-rich country from April 21-24 to identify new areas of cooperation. The visit took place even as exploration work proceeded on a Daewoo-managed block off the Rakhine coast in which two Indian state-owned companies have taken a stake. "India has expressed its desire to acquire stake in some of the other offshore blocks being taken up for exploration," a senior petroleum ministry official told IANS. Declining to disclose details, he described the visit to Myanmar as "very good". The delegation had representatives of the petroleum ministry, ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), the overseas arm of exploration major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), gas infrastructure major GAIL (India) Ltd. as well as oil refining and marketing majors Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL). Being geographically contiguous, India and Myanmar see tremendous possibility of enhancing cooperation in the oil and gas sector. Dependent on imports for 70 percent of its crude oil needs, India is looking at sources nearby for procuring supplies of gas in addition to oil to bridge the growing gap between demand and supply. GAIL, which holds 10 percent stake in the A-1 block on the western side of Myanmar extending 3,885 square metres off the Rakhine coast, is currently studying the possibility of bringing gas from the block through an undersea pipeline to meet domestic demand. Daewoo International holds management control of the block with 60 percent equity while OVL holds 20 percent stake and Kogas of South Korea 10 percent. "Survey of the exploration block has revealed the hydrocarbon reserves to be as expected. The drilling of exploration wells is expected to begin by November after further surveys have been carried out," the petroleum ministry official said. GAIL, in a report on the proposed pipeline project, informed the petroleum ministry that the A-1 block has gas reserves of 32 trillion cubic feet (tcf, or 907 billion cubic metres, or bcm) and recoverable gas reserves of 22 tcf (625 bcm). GAIL has offered to set up a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bottling plant in Myanmar after carrying out a feasibility study and also wants to participate in the gas pipeline project. Given IOC's expertise in the field of refineries, Myanmar has sought its help to revamp one of its three refineries near Yangon, the ministry official said. "The finer details about the modalities of payment to IOC and other details are still to be worked out," he said. An official delegation from Myanmar is expected to visit India soon, with Petroleum Minister Ram Naik having extended an invitation to his counterpart. Naik is meanwhile scheduled to visit Iran on May 10 to follow up on the memorandum of cooperation signed by the two countries to boost ties in the field of oil and gas.
Source: IANS
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