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Bidding for new oil and gas fields to commence next year

Fresh bidding rounds for offshore and onshore oil and gas blocks will be called during the first and second quarters of 2019, according to the director general of the Ministry of Electricity and Energy’s Oil and Gas Planning Department.

“Tenders for one block in an existing onshore field will be called before the end of the year and we’ve started preparing to submit the necessary documents to the President’s Office. For offshore and other onshore fields, bidding will be called in the first and second quarters of next year,” he said.

If all goes according to plan, it will be the first time a bidding round is held under the current government. The last tender for work at Myanmar’s oil and gas fields was conducted in 2014 under U Thein Sein’s former administration.

State-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) will invite international tenders for oil and gas exploration and drilling and production activities in unoccupied onshore and offshore blocks in partnership with foreign oil companies, the ministry announced last month.

Projects will be awarded under Production Sharing Contracts and Improved Petroleum Recovery Contract arrangements.

In total, there are 53 onshore oil and gas blocks in Myanmar. Of these, production work is being carried out in 25 by the government in cooperation with foreign companies. Meanwhile, the MOGE is producing from another 11 blocks. The remaining18 blocks are unoccupied.

The country has also designated a total of 51 offshore blocks, 38 in which foreign companies like Thailand’s PTTEP, France’s Total and South Korea’s Daewoo hold stakes. The remaining 13 blocks are unoccupied and available.

In its announcement, the MOGE said tenders for the 18 onshore and 13 offshore blocks which are unoccupied will be called in the near future.

Among these blocks are five onshore blocks and 11 offshore blocks which have recently been relinquished by previous drillers including Shell and India’s Reliance Industries. Once termination agreements are signed for all the relinquished blocks, they will be included in future bidding rounds, said U Kyaw Thura, executive geologist from MOGE.

So far, about 20 companies registered their interest to bid, said director general. “We’ve seen strong interest to bid from these companies. However, some do not have enough experience. We will consider and decide carefully,” he said.

Currently, there are 32 companies from 20 countries active in the Myanmar oil and gas sector, according to the MOGE. Myanmar produces close to 20,000 barrels of oil and 1.7 billion cubic feet of gas per day from its onshore and offshore fields.

An announcement was issued for local companies to register at the ministry in the first week of July with the aim of encouraging Myanmar citizen companies to cooperate and invest with foreign oil and gas companies. The intent is for local companies to get experience and benefit from offshore and onshore oil and gas exploring and extracting businesses in Myanmar in the future.

In 2018-2019, a slew of foreign companies are scheduled to carry out seismic surveys, exploration and extracting, feasibility studies and collecting geological data at 20 offshore and onshore blocks. These will involve the likes of PTTEP, Daewoo, Italy’s ENI and Australia’s Woodside.

For more detail; https://www.mmtimes.com/news/bidding-new-oil-and-gas-fields-commence-next-year.html

 

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