Indian petroleum minister to visit Myanmar in April

New Kerala 
08 Feb 2006

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora is likely to visit Yangon on his first overseas trip in April to try to convince Myanmar that India is serious in pursuing the gas pipeline project.

The move comes in the backdrop of Myanmar having conveyed its disappointment over the delay by India in pursuing the project, originally envisaged as a tri-nation project including Bangladesh.

At stake is not just India's 30 percent stake in two exploration blocks offshoring Myanmar but the option of getting additional gas supplies to meet its growing demand.

India is currently able to meet only 50 percent of its demand through domestic production and regassified imported LNG.

Even as plans are afoot for the import of more gas from Iran and Central Asian countries, Myanmar is seen as a good and economic source of getting clean energy supplies.

The delay of over six months in the finalisation of the tri-nation pact signed in January 2005 had led to Myanmar agreeing to consider China's request for a pipeline project for gas supplies.

"The petroleum minister is likely to visit Yangon in April, by when we hope to get the technical feasibility report from (Belgian company) SUZ Tractebel who have been selected as technical consultants for studying an alternative route bypassing Bangladesh," a senior petroleum ministry official told IANS.

"Personally we do not see any possibility of the pipeline passing through Bangladesh as we get the impression that it is not interested in the project," the official said.

He admitted that there was considerable pressure from Myanmar for an early decision on the pipeline project, demonstrated in two visits by the Myanmarese energy minister as also an official communication and visit last month.

"The message from Myanmar is very clear and we have no choice but to proceed with the project and come up with a viable proposal," the official said.

Despite the fact that the alternative pipeline route bypassing Bangladesh and entering India through the northeast would be much longer, there is considerable support for the project "given that it would help us tap the gas reserves in Tripura and Assam, while saving on the transit fee we would have had to pay Bangladesh," official sources said.

Other than import of gas through the pipeline route, Myanmar has also offered India the option of exploring the feasibility of a power plant near the gas fields for generation and transmission of electricity.

European infrastructure consultants SUZ Tractebel has been given the brief to submit by April the detailed feasibility report, an environment management plan and a rapid risk analysis study report for the Myanmar-India pipeline project via northeast Indian territory.

"The proposed pipeline will be routed through the states of Mizoram, Assam, West Bengal and Bihar. The pipeline will also have the provision to transport gas from developing gas fields in Tripura and Assam," said the official statement from state-owned GAIL (India) Ltd, which is handling the project.