INCOME from sales of natural gas could potentially double in coming years due to the recent signing of major gas deals and an increase in gas prices, said industry experts in the first week of July.

“I expect revenue from natural gas will double in the coming years as the price increases,” said U Hla Maung, a well-known energy researcher.

Myanmar earned about US$2.6 billion from natural gas exports to Thailand in 2007-08 fiscal year at the current gas price – $4.41 per 1000 cubic feet.

U Hla Maung, author of The World and its Energy Crisis, tipped prices to hit as high as $8 per 1000 cubic feet in the future, while pointing out that newly-signed deals will increase both gas production and revenue.

He said that as global energy reserves dwindle, major oil companies are turning to relatively unexplored countries such as Myanmar for new fields, investing millions of dollars in exploration and new projects to meet rising global demand.

Due to the high potential for discovering natural gas reserves in the country, foreign direct investment (FDI) in energy sector for 2007 stood at more than $474 million, about 90 percent of the country’s total FDI in that year.

The figure was 2.5 times the $187 million the energy sector received in FDI in 2006.

Last month, two multi-billion dollar gas contracts were signed – one between Myanmar, China, and South Korea and the other a Myanmar-Thailand deal – to develop, produce and export gas from offshore gas fields to China and Thailand.

According to the Shwe project contract, Myanmar and major shareholder Daewoo international have reached an agreement with the China National Petroleum Corporation to transport gas from Shwe field to China via pipeline.

The Shwe field contains approximately 4.5 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.

In another development, Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise signed an agreement with Thailand’s PTTEP to develop and drill the M-9 gas field, in Mottama Gulf. The M-9 gas project is expected to produce about 300 million cubic feet of gas a day and will export about 240 million cubic feet daily to Thailand when production begins in 2011 or 2012.

U Hla Maung said when the projects come online in 2011-12, the higher foreign currency earnings from gas production should then be used to improve the economy through infrastructure investments.

The agriculture sector, which is yet to be industrialised, could be developed using the gas revenue and other sectors such as health and education could receive a boost in funding, which would assist the economy in the long-term, he said.

“Our country’s economic base is primarily the agriculture sector so investing in this area as well as health and education will eventually lead to industrialisation, like other developing countries [in Southeast Asia],” he said.