Myanmar invites tender for oil & gas exploration

Myanmar has invited foreign tender for oil and gas exploration in 18 more inland blocks scattered in six regions and states in the country, Xinhua news agency said citing a report in the local Myanmar Post Global Monday. Three blocks were granted for each company for the undertaking and the tender deadline is set for Aug 3. Since 1988, foreign companies have been engaged in 493 inland blocks and 26 offshore ones, the report said. Meanwhile, one more oil well in Myanmar's offshore oil field -- Aung Thinkha-2 has been found producing oil and gas in May this year and the test run of the oil well at offshore oil field M-3, carried out by the state's Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) and the PTTEPI of Thailand, proved successful. The oil well can produce 154 barrels of condensate and 25.8 million cubic-feet (over 730,000 cubic meters) of gas. Myanmar has abundance of natural gas resources especially 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) out of 89.722 TCF's estimated reserve of offshore and onshore gas, experts said. The country is also estimated to have 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserve, official statistics indicate. According to official statistics, foreign oil companies engaged in oil and gas exploration and production in Myanmar include Australia, Britain, Canada, China, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The statistics reveal that foreign investment in Myanmar's oil and gas sector had reached US$13.815 billion in 104 projects as of the end of March, 2011, accounting for 38.8 percent and standing the second in the country's foreign investment sectorally after electric power.