Myanmar, Bangla, okay gas pipeline

India, Bangladesh and Myanmar today agreed to a transnational pipeline for the export of natural gas from Myanmar to India. The pipeline will be operated by an international consortium.

In a joint press statement released in Yagon, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, Bangladesh's Minister for Energy and Minerals AKM Mosharraf Hossain and Myanmar's Energy Minister Lun Thi agreed to set up a tripartite techno-commercial committee for working out the routing of the pipeline, access issues and commercial matters.

Speaking to reporters over the phone from Yagon, Aiyar said the first meeting of the committee would be held on February 7 in the Myanmarese Capital and an agreement would be in place by April. He said 4-6 trillion cubic metres (tcf) of gas would be available from Myanmar in the next few months.

There had been a significant gas find in the A-1 block in Myanmar recently and ONGC Videsh and GAIL India together hold 30 per cent equity in the block.

The total gas reserve in the block is estimated at 14-42 tcf. Besides, ONGC Videsh has recently negotiated another production-sharing contract for the A-3 block in Myanmar.

On being asked which Indian companies would be in the consortium operating the pipeline, he said GAIL would be one of them.

The pipeline will also be used by India and Bangladesh to locally transport their own natural gas.

While Bangladesh can bring in gas from its northern region through India to its western regions, India can bring in the gas available in Tripura to other parts of the country.

While the pipeline remained central to the trilateral discussions, Aiyar said gas could also be transported in compressed or liquefied form.

On whether the pipeline could be used for bringing in Bangladesh gas, he said Bangladesh was yet to study its total gas availability in the country.

Gas exports to India could rectify the trade imbalance between the two countries, he added.