Two more Myanmar Nationals arrested
Document Actions
Daewoo secures Myanmar gas fields
Daewoo International Corp., one of the nation's leading trading companies, announced yesterday that it had secured large-sized gas reserves in Myanmar, which, were officially certified by a U.S.-based evaluator.
By Ko Kyoung-tae
Shwe
2006.08.11
Daewoo International Corp., one of the nation's leading trading companies, announced yesterday that it had secured large-sized gas reserves in Myanmar, which, were officially certified by a U.S.-based evaluator.
The company said oil industry consultant Gaffney, Cline & Associates Ltd. evaluated three gas fields in the A- 1 and A-3 areas, with reserves ranging from 4.8 to 8.6 trillion cubic feet, equivalent to 2 billion barrels of crude oil.
This will be the largest aggregate of gas reserves to be developed by Korean explorers.
"Currently India, Thailand and China are keen on purchasing our gas through pipelines," said Lee Tae-yong, Daewoo International's president.
"Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese companies are also interested in buying the gas."
The 10 trillion cubic feet gas reserve amounts to around 200 million tons of liquefied natural gas, about five times Korea's annual consumption.
Amid soaring petroleum prices, many Asian economies had turned their gazes to the cleaner and cheaper alternative LNG in recent years.
Observers largely expect the global LNG demand to further soar in years to come, as Western oil majors cannot boost petroleum output in the immediate term due to a lack of facility investment over the past decades.
" We expect gas production to go online earliest around late 2009," Lee said.
With a 60 percent stake in the field, the gas developer has been spearheading the project jointly with Korea Gas Corp. and two Indian oil companies.
On the back of offshore gas discoveries on the Northwestern shore of Myanmar, Daewoo International aims to expand its gas exploration projects in the Southeast Asian country.
The company is a former trading unit of the now-defunct Daewoo Group, which collapsed under massive debt after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Korea Asset Management Corp., the state-invested rescue financing company, currently holds the largest stake of 35.5 percent in the bailed out firm, aiming to sell it this year.