India-Myanmar gas pipeline unlikely to materialise, says top Myanmar official

The proposed Rs8,500-crore gas pipeline from Myanmar to India may never materialise as Yangon has concluded that its reserves in the offshore area where in block A-1 is located is not enough to meet the demand of an export pipeline to India, says a top official from Myanmar's energy ministry.

ONGC Videsh Ltd and GAIL together hold a 30-per cent stake, at four trillion cubic feet at A-1. GAIL has planned import of gas through a 1,573-km onland pipeline from Myanmar via the Mizoram and Assam in the North East to West Bengal and finally to Gaya in Bihar.

According to U Soe Myint, director general, ministry of energy, gas found in block A-1 and in its adjacent block A-3 will first be used to meet local demand in Myanmar and "if there is surplus, we will look at export options," he said.

He said Myanmar needed 200-300 million standard cubic feet per day (8.5 million standard cubic meters per day) of gas the volumes did not support multiple export options.

Myint said reserve estimates in A-3 would be known by second half of 2007 after completing an appraisal programme. Myanmar, he said, believes the blocks together hold an in-place reserve of 20 trillion cubic feet and can produce 2 billion cubic feet (56.6 million standard cubic meters per day) of gas for 25 years. "We need a third-party certification of reserves to establish our belief," he said.

UK-based Gaffney Cline and Associates has certified the `best` estimate of recoverable reserves at 18-million standard cubic meters per day, 40 per cent of volumes needed to support investment in a transnational pipeline.