Pipeline from coast to China completed
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Myanmar's 800-kilometre gas pipeline from the western coast to the Chinese border has been completed on schedule, officials said yesterday.
The Chinese-built, US$2.5-billion (Bt76 billion) project comprises two pipelines across central Myanmar.
“The Myanmar-China natural gas pipeline has been finished and is ready for trial operations,” an official of the state-owned oil and gas company said.
Deliveries of gas from offshore reserves in the Bay of Bengal are scheduled to begin on July 1, said the official who asked to remain anonymous.
A parallel oil pipeline to Yunnan in southern China is 97 per cent complete and scheduled to start flowing in September or October, the official said.
Myanmar formed a joint venture with China National Petroleum Corporation to build the pipelines in March 2009.
The gas comes from the offshore Shwe Gas project, a joint venture between South Korean firm Daewoo International, ONGC Videsh Ltd of India, Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, GAIL Ltd of India and Korea Gas Corp.
It is expected to deliver about 12 billion cubic metres of gas to China per year, earning Myanmar foreign exchange revenues of about1.5 billion dollars. Another 1 billion cubic metres will be reserved for domestic use, according to the Energy Ministry.
The project includes the construction of a deep-sea port on Maday Island in Khyauk Phyu town of Rakhine state.
The pipelines project has been dogged by complaints of poor land compensation, insufficient environmental impact studies and for hiring more Chinese labourers than Myanmar nationals.
Some local residents have benefited.
“Now I know how to say mango in Chinese and can count from one to 10,” fruit vendor Aye Maung Suu said.
“A lot of Chinese people come to the Kyauk Phyu morning market and they buy a lot of fruits and vegetables to resell to Chinese people on Maday Island,” she said.
