THE amount of natural gas available for domestic use in Myanmar is set to almost triple over the next decade, Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) revealed last week.
The rise will be the result of two major projects – Shwe and Zawtika – coming online, increases in onshore gas production, and the construction of a new pipeline linking the Yadana project with Yangon.
By 2019, an estimated 500 million cubic feet a day (mmcfd) will be used to meet Myanmar’s domestic energy requirements.
Presently, just 185mmcfd – 75mmcfd from MOGE’s onshore projects and 110mmcfd from the Yadana project – goes to meeting domestic demand.
With the construction of a new 24-inch pipeline linking the Yadana project with Yangon, the amount of gas the development supplies to the local market is set to rise to 200mmcfd.
“More domestic gas supply will lead to energy independence, reduced dependence on crude [oil] imports and more environmentally friendly use of energy,” U Myint Oo, MOGE’s acting managing director, said at the ASEAN Council on Petroleum (ASCOPE) conference in Bangkok on November 18.
“MOGE will remain a major regional gas supplier and will be able to supply sufficient gas to the industrial sector.”
Natural gas exports will grow from their present level of 1100mmcfd to 1900mmcfd. In the 2008-2009 fiscal year, Myanmar earned US$2.38 billion from natural gas exports to Thailand, according to Myanmar government figures.
“Gas exports will almost double over the next decade after the completion of the Shwe and Zawtika projects.”
U Soe Myint, a former director general of the Ministry of Energy’s planning department and now an adviser to Thailand’s PTTEP, said in the long-term the additional natural gas would go to meeting demand from the transport and industry sectors.
“However, the current electricity shortage is critical and for the next five to 10 years, until Myanmar has adequate hydropower capacity, the top usage of natural gas will be electric power generation,” U Soe Myint told The Myanmar Times via email last week. “It has always been the Myanmar government’s policy to use natural gas for electricity generation as a stop-gap measure. Once hydropower is available, it will provide the base load in the future.”
According to a recent Asian Development Bank report, Myanmar’s primary energy demand is expected to grow at 2.6 percent annually to 2030, driven largely by increased electrification and the transport sector.
Demand for natural gas is expected to grow at 8.1pc a year and will come mainly from the transport and industrial sectors.
Electricity generation from natural gas will drop from 39.8pc in 2005 to just 4.3pc in 2030, when almost 95pc of electricity will come from hydropower projects.
The Shwe project, which will come online in 2013, will initially provide 100mmcfd for domestic use. The smaller Zawtika project, which is being developed by PTTEP in the M-9 block, should provide 60mmcfd by 2013, U Myint Oo confirmed.
MOGE’s onshore operations are also projected to boost domestic gas supplies, however U Myint Oo could not say how much domestic production would rise from 2009 levels of 75mmcfd.
U Soe Myint said MOGE would also be looking to increase onshore oil production in the coming decades.
“We have a few foreign companies drilling onshore, especially in blocks in the Chindwin region and we are reliant on their financial and technological capability for possible new discoveries,” he said. “Myanmar still has very good petroleum geology for new discoveries. What we need is solid finance and sound technology to enable big new discoveries.”
The Zawtika field has reserves of 1.47tcf. Gas will be exported to Thailand, and the project will require the construction of a 220 to 260 kilometre pipeline. The Shwe fields, located in blocks A-1 and A-3, have reserves of 4.5tcf.
