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Comment (Under the production sharing contracts signed between the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise under the Ministry of Energy, oil and gas exploration will be carried out at blocks AD-1, AD-6 and AD-8 off the Rakhine coast which cover a total area of 10,000 square-kilometers.
Since October 2004 up to January 2005, a consortium comprising two Chinese and one Singaporean companies had reached a series of contracts with Myanmar on gas exploration at onshore Block-M (Kyaukphyu) and A-4 in western Rakhine state, Block M-10 and M-2 inthe Mottama offshore area, onshore Block C-1 (Indaw-Yenan area) and Block C-2 (Shwebo-Monywa area) in northwestern Sagaing division.
The two Chinese companies are the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) Myanmar Ltd and China Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corporation, while the Singaporean company is Golden Aaron Pte. Ltd and the Myanmar side was represented by the state-run Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise.
Attending the signing ceremony were visiting Chinese Vice-Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission Zhang Guobao, Myanmar Minister of Energy Brigadier-General Lun Thi, Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Guan Mu and Vice-President of CNPC Liao Yongyuan.
Meanwhile, Myanmar is planning to sell gas produced from two biggest blocks A-1 (Shwe field and the Shwephyu field) and Block A-3 (Mya field) in the Rakhine offshore area to neighboring countries such as India, China and Thailand as well as South Korea. However, the final decision to which country the gas will be sold is being postponed up to now.
Myanmar has abundance of natural gas resources in the offshore areas. With three main large offshore oil and gas fields and 19 onshore ones, Myanmar has proven recoverable reserve of 510 billion cubic meters out of 2.54 trillion cubic meters' 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.
The Myanmar figures also show that in the fiscal year 2005-06 which ended in March, the country produced 7.962 million barrels of crude oil and 11.45 billion cubic meters of gas. Gas export during the year hit 9.138 billion cubic meters, earning over 1 billion U.S. dollars.
Available statistics reveal that investment in Myanmar's oil and gas sector had reached 2.635 billion dollars as of March, the end of the fiscal year 2005-06, since the country opened to foreign investment in late 1988.
