INDIA said earlier this month it was considering using tanker vessels to import liquefied natural gas from Myanmar in a move which would avoid the need of having to build a gas pipeline linking the two countries.

India’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, said in New Delhi on November 9 that using tankers to import the gas was an option worthy of examination.

He was speaking at the signing of an agreement under which the state-owned Gas Authority of India Ltd., is to acquire technology from a Belgian energy company, Exmar Marine, which would enable the gas to be transported in liquid form and reconverted into gas.

Mr Aiyar said the technology could be used to import natural gas from Myan-
mar.

Myanmar agreed to sell India natural gas from the offshore A1 gas field in Rakhine State last January, when New Delhi proposed building a pipeline across Bangladesh to import the gas.

India, Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in principle with the proposal. However, the planned signing in March of a memorandum of understanding on the pipeline project was delayed because of differences between New Delhi and Dhaka over conditions set by Bangladesh for allowing the pipeline to cross its territory.

The delay prompted India and Myanmar to reveal in July that they were considering other options to transport the gas, including using tankers or by a pipeline bypassing Bangladesh.

The A1 field is being developed by a consortium headed by the South Korean conglomerate, Daewoo International, which said in August last year it was considering building a US$3 billion processing facility in Rakhine State to produce liquefied natural gas for export.

In an interview with Myanmar Times on November 16, the operations manager of Daewoo International’s Myanmar exploration and production office, Mr Jung Hwan Lee, said the facility was still under consideration. However, Mr Lee said any decision to proceed would depend on a forthcoming independent assessment of the field’s reserves.

Daewoo International holds a 60 per cent share in the consortium, in which the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has 20 per cent, and the Gas Authority of India and South Korea’s state-owned KOGAS, each hold 10 per cent.