Myanmar - Myanmar supplies under half domestic gas demand: Officials

YANGON - Myanmar meets less than half of its natural gas demand because most of its output is exported to Thailand, leaving the country struggling with regular blackouts and a heavy dependence on imports, government officials said.

The Southeast Asian country produces around 1.47 billion cubic feet of gas per day and exports 1.2 billion to Thailand.

The 270 million cubic feet kept at home met only 48 per cent of domestic demand, said Zaw Aung, director of planning for the state-run Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise, at an oil conference.

Opposition has grown to the policy of exporting Myanmar's oil and gas resources when the country desperately needs the energy to develop infrastructure and tackle chronic power cuts.

Myanmar has promised to keep gas production at home after fulfilling commitments to China and Thailand, a policy unveiled by Oil Minister Than Htay in an interview with Reuters in January and repeated at a high-profile international energy conference in Yangon this week.

"From this time onwards, we will be utilising gas domestically and not exporting it," Htin Aung, director general of energy planning for the Ministry of Energy, told participants.

The government estimates domestic natural gas demand will increase to 700 million cubic feet a day in 2016 and 800 million by 2020.

Some analysts believe those estimates are too conservative, taking into account the country's potential economic growth rates, should it continue with its rapid reforms.

Domestic gas supplies only provide three-quarters of the power industry's needs and less than half of demand from state-run companies, Zaw Aung said.

Private factories suffer the most, with domestic supplies meeting a miniscule 1 per cent of demand.

The conference in Yangon ends on Thursday.

Reuters

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