Myanmar to offer 13 deepwater blocks

Offshore staff

(Asia-Pacific) - Myanmar plans to offer 13 deepwater blocks in addition to the existing five offshore blocks that have not been taken up yet, Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) managing director San Lwin told the 8th ASCOPE conference and exhibition in Manila on November 30.

"Our target is to find more hydrocarbon to supply to the region," he said in a country report to the ASEAN Council on Petroleum (ASCOPE) and responding to Asian markets facing severe energy shortage.

Local demand would be met through onshore fields by raising production to 50,000 b/d in five years from the current 10,000 b/d.

"To achieve self-sufficiency in oil and gas, MOGE is planning to increase its exploration activities in onshore areas, especially by deploying new deep drilling rigs to explore deeper reservoirs in existing fields and increasing exploration acreages," San Lwin says.

For offshore, San Lwin disclosed that Daewoo Exploration Co. of South Korea was proceeding with its two offshore discoveries in the Gulf of Martaban.

Appraisal drilling will be made in Shwe Phyu, an estimated 10 tcf discovery made early this year in A-1 block.

Three options were being considered for the development of the Shwe Phyu, he says. The first option was to lay pipelines to neighboring countries, the second was to set up a liquefied natural gas plant, and the third was to land the gas in a special economic zone along the Myanmar coast.

Daewoo, and is partners Korea Gas Co., Gas Authority of India Ltd., and Oil and Natural Gas Corp. of India, would also be doing further exploration in A-1 block, says San Lwin.

The four partners have jointly drilled five appraisal wells in block A-1's Shwe & Shwe fields, which were discovered last year.

In an update on the two major gas fields, Total, Unocal, PTTEP, and MOGE were jointly implementing the SEIN field development in blocks 5 and 6, home to the 6.5 tcf Yadana gas field, says San Lwin.

The plan is to increase domestic gas supply by an additional 110 MMcf/d from the SEIN field in addition to the 50 MMcf/d being supplied by Yadana, while 650 MMcf/d is exported to Thailand.

One hundred-twenty miles of 20-inch pipeline would be laid for the additional gas, which would replace liquid fuels being used by industries, says San Lwin.

Exploratory drilling was being planned in the satellite areas to increase gas supply by 100 MMcf/d from the Yetagun gas project in blocks 12,13, and14.

The field, with 3.2 tcf of reserves, currently produces 450 MMcf/d of gas for export to Thailand and 13,000 b/d of condensate, says San Lwin.

12/01/05