Myanmar Oil And Gas Update - 06 March 2013

[SeaVisionBurma]

By Soe Sandar Oo | Wednesday, 06 March 2013 Myanmar Times

The Ministry of Energy will put about 25 offshore oil and gas exploration blocks up for auction in April, a Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) official announced at the Myanmar Upstream Summit oil and gas conference on March 4.

U Zaw Aung, the director of planning at the MOGE, added during the summit that Myanmar plans to put 18 onshore blocks up for bids in January 2014.

“Foreign investors are more interested in Myanmar’s offshore blocks, because they have greater potential. The government plans to drill over 300 new wells over the next five years,” he said.

The MOGE has not yet decided whether or not foreign companies will be allowed a 100pc stake in deep-water blocks. However, they have definitively announced that foreign companies will have to cooperate with local companies to work both onshore and on shallow-water blocks, he said.

U Zaw Aung said that decisions for onshore bids probably will not be finalised until November.

U Than Htay, the Minister of Energy, said during the summit on March 4: “The government of Myanmar took necessary actions recently required to implement the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)… The Ministry of Energy will make all of the terms and conditions [for bids] transparent and impartial, so the best proposals can be accessed and selected for award.”

Myanmar is relying on the development of its oil and gas sector not only for domestic use, but also for export as sanctions against the country continue to ease around the world, said U Htin Aung, the Deputy Minister of Energy.

“To overcome the local deficit of energy, the offshore blocks need to be auctioned,” he said during the summit.

Full article here: http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/business/4399-myanmar-oil-and-gas-update.html