Myanmar wants to quench Asia's thirst for oil and gas

Endowed with vast energy resources, military ruled Myanmar wants to be a major supplier of oil and gas to its neighbours, a government official said Monday.
"Our dream is Myanmar would eventually become a major energy supplier in this region," Soe Myint, director-general with the country's energy planning department, said at a seminar jointly organised by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and Institute of South Asian Studies.
"We hope to become a sort of bridge between Southeast Asia and South Asia," he said.
Figures given by Soe Myint said the impoverished country has proven crude oil reserves of more than 508 million barrels in onshore areas and 100.8 million barrels offshore.
For natural gas, the country has almost 15.85 trillion cubic feet of reserves offshore and more than 768 billion cubic feet onshore, he said, adding the search for energy supplies is to intensify next year.
"Next year in 2008, we will have a very busy drilling programme for both onshore as well as offshore," he said.
"With all these drilling programmes both onshore and offshore, we are quite confident that we may have some more discovery in the year 2008 or early 2009."
Soe Myint said 16 foreign companies including Russian, Chinese and South Korean energy firms have signed contracts to drill for energy supplies offshore.
Myanmar's vast energy resources have proven to be an economic salvation for the impoverished country which has been hit by United States and European economic sanctions imposed over the junta's human rights abuses and the detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened as energy-hungry neighbours such as China, India and Thailand are spending billions of dollars for a share of Myanmar's vast energy resources to solve their power problems.
Myanmar's military rulers have awarded a raft of oil and natural gas exploration contracts, following major discoveries by South Korea's Daewoo International.
Daewoo said the blocks in the Bay of Bengal near the border with Bangladesh have been certified to hold up to 219.2 billion cubic meters (7.7 trillion cubic feet) of exploitable gas.
Impoverished locals have yet to see the benefits of the energy deals. Most have been left in the dark as blackouts stretch through much of the day, even as reclusive officials in the new administrative capital Naypyidaw in central Myanmar enjoy an abundance of energy.
But Soe Myint said income earned from energy exports has brought much-needed funds to improve the country's infrastructure and telecommunications network.
"Before, the infrastructure in Myanmar is so very much limited," he said.
International direct dial telephone service is now available to almost all of the country, and road connections have been extended to remote areas, he said.
He said the income from energy sales has also gone towards the building of water reservoirs to aid the country's agricultural sector, which has raised hopes Myanmar can again be a rice exporter.
"There are many, many reservoirs now and we are hoping that we will be able to export rice again in the next few years' time because of the water supply that we are going to enjoy from the new water reservoirs that we constructed out of these earnings."