Myanmar discovers large offshore gas reserve in southwestern region

Source:Xinhua Published: 2016-1-4 10:40:26

A Myanmar local company has discovered a large offshore gas reserve off Ngwesaung Beach, Pathein in southwestern Ayeyawaddy region, an official report said Monday.

At a location about 48 kilometers off the beach, the MPRL E and P Pte Ltd found the gas reserve in a test well known as Shwe Yee Htun-1 at a depth of 5.3 kilometers below rotary table and 2 kilometers below the surface of the water.

The local company, the only independent energy company led by Myanmar nationals, began drilling the well in November last year.

The country's oil and natural gas export earned over 4.6 billion US dollars in the fiscal year 2014-15, ranking first sectorally in the year.

The gas, produced from the Yadana, Shwe, Yetagun and Zawtika gas fields, were mainly exported to China and Thailand.

A number of companies from Britain, Australia, Japan, Italy and India last year signed production sharing contracts with Myanmar to explore oil and gas at blocks off Rakhine coast, Taninthayi coast and Mottama in south Andaman basin.

Myanmar has abundant natural gas resources especially in the offshore areas.

Foreign investment in Myanmar's oil and gas sector amounted to 19.641 billion US dollars as of the end of September 2015 since late 1988 when the country opened to such investment, accounting for 34.16 percent of the total and ranking first sectorally in the country's foreign investment line-up, statistics show.

Posted in: Asia-Pacific

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