A host of energy industry majors are to make steps into oil and exploration off Myanmar after the South East Asian country awarded its a new round of blocks.
Statoil, BG Group, Shell and ConocoPhillips are among those who will kick off projects in largely unexplored waters around the country after 10 shallow-water and 10 deepwater blocks were awarded.
The country exported $3.7bullion in gas last year, mostly to nearby Thailand, but has proven gas reserves of almost eight trillion cubic feet.
The deepwater licences will allow the winners to explore and operate on their own, while the shallow-water ones require the companies to work with one of the 160 local partners registered with the Ministry of Energy.
The country’s proven natural gas reserves are estimated at 7.8trillion cubic feet.
“This is a large and virtually unexplored area in a basin with a proven petroleum system and thick sedimentary deposits,” said Statoil exploration boss for the region, Erling Vågnes
“With this award, we have accessed at scale in another frontier acreage with significant upside, in line with our exploration strategy.”
BG Group, which won two blocks off the coast, said the award was “in line with BG Group’s strategy to focus on securing prospective frontier acreage and enter, on average, one new basin each year”.
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