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Myanmar refuses gas supply to India
By agencies
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Wednesday, 11 January 2006, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: In a major blow to India's effort to secure energy needs through transnational pipelines, Myanmar has refused to supply natural gas to New Delhi and instead preferred doing business with China.
After beating Indian firms in overseas oil field acquisitions on three occasions in the last five months, Hong Kong-listed PetroChina has inked an agreement to purchase gas from A1 Block in Bay of Bengal.
"Ajay Tyagi, Joint Secretary (Gas), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had to cut short his trip and return after Myanmarese authorities said they had tied-up gas sales with China," an industry official said.
India has been pursuing gas imports from Iran, Myanmar and Turkmenistan via transnational gas pipelines to meet the growing energy needs as domestic production barely meets half of its requirement.
Sources said Tyagi, who returned from Yangon Tuesday, was informed that Myanmar Energy Ministry signed a MoU with PetroChina on December 7 for sale of 6.5 trillion cubic feet of gas from Block A-1 reserve over 30 years.