Weekly Business Roundup (August 8, 2009)

Thailand Aims to Pump Burma Martaban Gas in 2013

Thailand’s state oil and gas developer, PTTEP, is planning to have gas flowing from the new M-9 offshore site in the Gulf of Martaban by 2013.

PTTEP has confirmed gas reserves in the block of at least 50 billion cubic meters (1.7 trillion cubic feet).

The Thai energy ministry said this week PTTEP hoped to soon sign an agreement with Burma’s state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise to begin producing 300 million cubic feet per day toward the end of 2013.

It said the aim is for 240 million cubic feet of this to go to Thailand and the remainder to Burma.

The M-9 block promises to be one of the biggest sources of gas in Burma as the Thai company says it has only explored part of the area and will need to spend at least US $1 billion to develop it.

PTTEP remains the sole developer of M-9 although it had sought partners to share development costs, including Chinese state-owned oil conglomerate CNPC, which was reportedly interested in a 20 percent stake.

However, talks between the Thais and Chinese have broken off, and only last week the Thai energy ministry voiced concerns that China was developing a stranglehold over much of  Burma’s natural resources—including hydroelectric dam projects on the River Salween.

The M-9 is to be controversially pumped to Thailand via a pipeline to run parallel with pipes from the Yadana offshore gas field, which human rights groups say were built with slave labor coerced by the Burmese army.

Thailand Remains Burma’s Top Trading Partner

Thailand has again been named Burma’s top trading partner, with bilateral sales reaching US $3.05 billion during the 2008-9 financial year.

The bulk of this, $2.65 billion, was the value of gas imported by Thailand, according to Burma’s Central Statistical Organization.

Thailand’s exports to Burma, totaling almost $400 million, also put it at the top of its neighbor’s trading partner list, ahead of China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Burma imported a wide range of products from Thailand, including shoes, rice, rubber, jewelry, computers and electronic accessories, said the Burmese statistics office.

Aside from gas, Thailand imported timber, marine products and agricultural produce.

Burma-India Arms Trade Prompts Special Police Unit

Weapons smuggling is becoming such big business along the border between Burma and India that police in the Indian state of Mizoram have formed a special unit to try to identify and track down key smugglers.

Weapons recently seized in Mizoram include rocket launchers, M-16 rifles and Chinese-made pistols, Kolkata’s The Telegraph newspaper quotes Mizoram police chief Sharma Laldina as saying.

Indian police believe many weapons follow a route from Chiang Mai in northern Thailand via Burma’s Chin State.

Northeastern India’s remote and ethnically diverse states are home to numerous rebel groups fighting for autonomy or independence from New Delhi, and The Telegraph says police believe Mizoram may be a clearing center for onward sales.

The porous jungle border between Burma and India and corruption involving army units on both sides abets the arms smuggling, say Indian reports.

The arms trade is believed to be worth millions of dollars a year.

In May, police in the neighboring Indian state of Meghalaya arrested two couriers for an outlawed separatist group in Shillong with US $100,000 intended to “acquire a consignment of arms from the black market of Myanmar [Burma],” said Shillong’s police chief Claudia Lyngwa.

Suspended China-Burma Border Trade Zone Reopens

China says an “official” border trade zone with Burma which has been closed for more than five years has reopened.

The zone, around the town of Kan Pai Ti linking China’s Yunnan Province and Burma’s Kachin State, was formally opened in a ceremony with Burmese army chiefs, a Kachin ceasefire group and Chinese officials.

The trade zone was originally opened in 2004 but closed soon afterward “because of poor road connections,” according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua.

But the zone was most likely suspended because of armed conflict between the Burmese army and Kachin separatist fighters.

Burma’s Northern Command chief, Maj-Gen Soe Win, was at the reopening ceremony held in Kan Pai Ti and Sadone last weekend, along with the New Democratic Army-Kachin, an armed group which has signed a ceasefire with the military and agreed to form a border guard force.