Myanmar, Russia to jointly explore oil, gas

+ - 14:23, September 09, 2008


A Myanmar's oil company and a Russian one will jointly explore oil and gas in two onshore areas in Myanmar, the state-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday.

According to a production sharing contract signed last weekend between the state-operated Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) and the Closed Joint Stock Oil Company "Nobel Oil" of the Russian Federation, the exploration will be done in Hukaung and U-ru regions.



Other three Russian oil companies have been engaged in oil and gas exploration in Myanmar under respective contracts since 2006. The first, which is JSC Zarubezhneft Iteraaws along with the Sun Group of India, has been exploring oil and gas at block M-8 lying in the Mottama offshore area.

The other two Russian companies -- Silver Wave Sputnik Petroleum Pte Ltd and the Silver Wave Energy Pte Ltd of Kalmykia have been drilling Zeebyutaung test well-1 at the inland block B-2in Pinlebu township of northwestern Sagaing division under similar contract reached in March 2007.

There has been seven foreign companies operating onshore, including Essar Oil Ltd, Focus Energy Ltd, MPRL Exploration and Production Private Ltd, Goldpetrol, CNOOC, Sinopec Oil Company and Chinerry Assests, according to statistics.

There exists 19 onshore oil fields in Myanmar including Yenangyaung, Ayadaw, Chauk, Myanaung, Mann, Kyaukkhwet/Letpando, Htaukshabin, Kanni and Nyaungdon.

Besides the onshore areas, Myanmar has abundance of natural gas resources in the offshore areas. With three main large offshore oil and gas fields and 19 onshore ones, Myanmar has proven recoverable reserve of 18.012 trillion cubic-feet (TCF) or 510 billion cubic-meters (BCM) out of 89.722 TCF or 2.54 trillion cubic-meters (TCM)'s estimated reserve of offshore and onshore gas, experts said, adding that the country is also estimated to have 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserve.

Statistics show that foreign investment in Myanmar's oil and gas sector had reached 3.243 billion dollars in 85 projects as of the end of 2007 since the country opened to such investment in late 1988, standing the second in the country's foreign investment sectorally after electric power.

In 2007, foreign investment in the oil and gas sector more than tripled to 474.3 million U.S. dollars compared with 2006, accounting for 90 percent of the total during the year which stood504.8 million, according to the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development.

Currently, 13 foreign oil companies, mainly from Australia, Britain, Canada, China, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Russia, are involved in oil and gas projects in Myanmar, according to official sources.

Source: Xinhua