Eric Watkins
OGJ Oil Diplomacy Editor
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 13 -- Burma Petroleum Co. Ltd, a joint venture of Sinopec International Petroleum Corp. and Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE), confirmed a major gas discovery in Myanmar.
This followed earlier reports by Myanmar state media that the Chinese-led group had discovered proved reserves of 909 bcf of gas and 7.16 million bbl of condensate in central Myanmar.
Official reports said Sinopec made the discovery in Pahtolon oil field after extensive testing. Further tests are being conducted.
Last November, there were reports Sinopec found gas while exploring in central Myanmar, but the extent of reserves was not clear. A spokesman for Sinopec said he had no information about the gas discovery.
Win Myint, engineering director of state-owned MOGE, said Sinopec had been exploring for oil and gas near Monywa some 140 km northwest of Mandalay.
Analyst IHS Global Insight said the current discovery was probably “in onshore Block D, where Sinopec has been carrying out exploration activities, drilling the Thingadon 1 well in the Salin subbasin and the Padukkon 3 well.”
The find adds to other Chinese projects already under way in the country, including two pipeline projects to carry gas from Myanmar's offshore fields and imported oil to southwestern China.
CNPC launched construction of the two pipelines in Anning city near Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province in southwestern China. The planned 440,000 b/d oil pipeline and the 12 billion cu m/day gas pipeline both start at Kyaukryu port on the west coast of Myanmar, where construction began in June (OGJ Online, Sept. 13, 2010).
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
Photo from SABIC Limburg BV.
US Department of the Interior.
