Dhaka is planning to resume talks with New Delhi and Yangon on a tri-nation gas pipeline from Myanmar to India through Bangladesh but Delhi has reportedly scrapped its plan to take Myanmar gas as the Myanmar military junta has decided to sell to China most of the gas discovered near Bangladesh. Energy officials said the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has given permission to resume the negotiation with Delhi and Yangon on the pipeline to carry gas to India from Myanmar and the energy division had requested the foreign ministry to take necessary steps.

Although the proposed pipeline was shelved about three years ago after BNP-led government had tagged some conditions, Delhi and Yangon have not approached Dhaka about the project in two to three years. ‘We have not received any offer from India and Myanmar about the pipeline in recent times. We are taking a move to resume negotiation with the countries as the pipeline will be beneficial for us in meeting the demand for gas and revenue generation,’ the energy secretary, Mohammad Mohsin, told New Age on Friday. Energy officials said Dhaka would get millions of dollars in wheeling charges for gas transmission while it would seek access to the gas to meet local demands if the pipeline was laid out.

Indian and international media in three years reported that Delhi had lost its interest in taking Myanmar gas to India as Myanmar had reportedly agreed to sell gas from the fields, having some Indian stakes, to China which offered higher prices and had influence on the military government. When Mohsin’s attention was called to the reports that China has acquired Myanmar gas, he said, ‘As far as I know Myanmar has not sold all the gas to China from the targeted blocks.’ The Assam Tribune on July 31, 2009, quoting the Indian minister for petroleum and natural gas, Murli Deora, reported that Myanmar had decided to sell all the gas to China in a blow to India’s plan to take Myanmar gas to India. It reported the Indo-Myanmar gas pipeline project through the north-eastern India was finally shelved as the project was not economically viable. Although Delhi initially wanted to take the Myanmar gas to India through Bangladesh, it later shifted its attention on the north-eastern route.

According to the production sharing contract with Myanmar, India’s ONGC Videsh Limited and the Gas Authority of India Limited have the right to domestic sales or export their shares of about 2 million cubic metres of gas a day, Murli Deora said in Lok Sabha, according to newspaper reports. ‘It would, however, not be economically viable to take the allotted quantity of gas to India. Further, no other source of gas is available in Myanmar for import to India. Hence, presently it is not possible to take up the Indo-Myanmar gas pipeline project.’ Energy experts told New Age even if Myanmar, bypassing China, allowed Indian companies to take their share of gas to India through Bangladesh, it would not be economically viable to install about 290 kilometres of pipeline at an estimated cost of $1 billion to take only 2mmcmd of gas.

International media, including Reuters, in a few weeks reported that China had started installing two pipelines to carry oil and gas to its Yunnan province from Myanmar. The Asia Times on September 11, 2007 reported the military government of Myanmar denied the Gas Authority of India Ltd’s status of preferential buyer on Block A1 and A3 in its offshore natural gas fields in favour of selling the gas to PetroChina. ‘India has clearly lost an important diplomatic initiative in the attempt to counter Chinese influence in Myanmar,’ the newspaper reported. Bangladesh, on the other hand, approached Myanmar bilaterally to take gas from the neighbouring country but the military junta informed Bangladesh during the interim government that there was no gas now for sales to Bangladesh. The military-controlled interim government wanted to resume talks on the tri-nation gas pipeline but it later backtracked. Bangladesh faces a shortage of around 250 million cubic feet of gas a day while India and China are desperately looking for new energy sources.

-New Age