Myanmar, India Mull Building Cross-Border Oil Pipeline

India has proposed to build a pipeline from the country’s east coast to deliver oil products, mainly diesel, to Myanmar. “We have already connected (oil and gas) pipelines to China and Thailand, and we considered connecting (oil) pipelines to India as well as Bangladesh. This is under consideration to share petroleum products,” said Mr. Zaw Aung, Director General of Myanmar’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy’s oil and gas planning department, at the OTC Asia conference held in Kuala Lumpur recently.

A working group has been formed by Myanmar and India to look at issues such as security, land and oil storage, and how to price the fuel and the oil’s specification, a Reuters report quoted the executive as saying. Myanmar currently imports about 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of diesel and gasoline mainly from Singapore, Mr. Zaw Aung said, and produces only 12,000-bpd of oil locally. The country has invited investors to build refineries but high land cost is one of the main issues to overcome, he said.