AT least two options are reported to be under consideration for exporting natural gas to India from reserves discovered in Rakhine State late last year.

One option is for a pipeline that would link the gas field to the Indian state of Tripura before crossing Bangladesh to India’s heavily-industrialised West Bengal state. Geologists say a direct undersea pipeline to West Bengal would be problematic because of the unfavourable weather conditions in waters off Bangladesh.

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The other option is to build a terminal in Rakhine State which would enable the gas to be exported to India in liquefied form.

The terminal option was revealed by the Deputy Minister for Energy, Brigadier Than Htay, on the sidelines of an energy conference in Manila on June 10 attended by energy ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its dialogue partners, China, Japan and South Korea.

Reuters news agency quoted Brigadier-General Than Htay as saying the option was being considered by the four partners in the consortium which is developing the offshore field, estimated on the basis of last year’s discovery to contain 14 trillion feet of recoverable gas.

Brigadier-General Than Htay said the terminal, which would have an annual production capacity of three million tonnes of liquefied natural gas, could cost up to US$3 billion.

“We want to start work on the terminal in 2005 and complete it in two years,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

The consortium is headed by South Korea’s Daewoo International, which has a 60 per cent share in the venture. State-owned Indian companies Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Gas Authorities of India have 20 and 10 per cent shares respectively. South Korea’s KOGAS also has a 10 per cent share.

A Ministry of Energy official said last week that the government would choose the most economically viable option for exports.

Meanwhile, the Times of India has quoted the Bangladesh Foreign Minister, Mr Morshed Khan, as saying that Dhaka would allow the proposed Myanmar-Tripura-Bangladesh-West Bengal pipeline to cross its territory as long as the project was beneficial for the country.

The newspaper said Mr Khan was speaking after talks with India’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, in New Delhi on June 1.

An Indian news agency, Asian News International, on June 13 quoted the Bangladeshi Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr Mosharraf Hossain, as saying the gas pipeline proposal would be submitted to the Prime Minister, Begum Khalida Zia.

“If she agrees, we will send shortly the proposal to the cabinet sub committee on economic affairs for its opinion,” Mr Hossain said.