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Daewoo International Corp., one of the nation's leading trading companies, announced on
August 10, 2006 that it had secured large-size gas reserve in Myanmar, which were
officially verified by a UK-based evaluator.
The company said oil industry consultant Gaffney, Cline & Associates Ltd. evaluated three
gas fields in the A-1 and A-3 areas with reserves ranging from 5.7 to 10 trillion cubic feet,
equivalent to 2 billion barrels of crude oil. This will be the largest aggregate of gas
reserves to be developed by Korean explorers. It is expected that the gas production will
start around late 2009.
It was known that India, China, and Thailand are keen on purchasing through pipelines.
Also Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese companies are interested in buying the products.
The 10 trillion cubic feet gas reserve amounts to around 200 million tons of liquefied
natural gas, 20 times Korea's annual consumption.
Amid soaring petroleum prices, many Asian economies had turned their gazes at the
cleaner and cheaper alternative LNG in recent years. Observers largely expect the global
LNG demand to further rise in years to come, as Western oil majors cannot boost
petroleum production in the immediate term due to a lack of facility investment over the
past decades.
With a 60 percent stake in the field, the gas developer has been spearheading the project
jointly with Korea Gas Corp. and two Indian companies. On the back of the offshore gas
discoveries on the Northwestern shore of Myanmar, Daewoo International aims to expand
the gas development projects in the South East Asian countries.
The company is a former trading arm of the now-defunct Daewoo group, which collapsed
under massive debt after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Korea Asset Management Corp,
the sate-invested rescue financing company, currently holds the largest stake of 35.5
percent in the bailout firm, aiming to sell its shares by the end of this year. |
