Page 8 - AsianOil Week 05 2021

AsianOil SOUTHEAST ASIA AsianOil

Woodside commits to

Myanmar drilling despite coup

POLICY AUSTRALIAN developer Woodside Petroleum
remains committed to drilling three deepwater
wells offshore Myanmar this year, despite the
country’s recent military coup.
The Myanmar army detained the country’s
leaders on Monday over claims of election fraud
and imposed a one-year-long state of emergency.
The move has prompted US President Joe Biden
to consider re-imposing sanctions that were
lifted by former US President Barack Obama.
Woodside told Reuters on February 4 that
despite recent events it intended to pursue its
development schedule for the A-6 project, which
lies off Myanmar’s south-west coast in around
2,000 metres of water.
“Our current drilling campaign remains on
schedule and those supporting the drilling cam-
paign are safe and accounted for. We continue
to progress the A-6 Development activities as
a priority,” the newswire quoted an unnamed
Woodside spokeswoman as saying.
The spokeswoman added that Woodside
aimed to be a “constructive foreign investor” in Possible project delays
Myanmar, before adding: “In the ongoing devel- Wood Mackenzie research associate Saloni
opment of Myanmar, economic stability and Kapoor said: “Key developments such as
energy supply can play an important role.” PTTEP’s Block M9 (Zawtika) and Woodside’s
While Woodside told Reuters that it was Block A6 account for around 40% of the coun-
monitoring guidance from the UN and the Aus- try’s expected supply until 2030. Incremental
tralian government on investing in Myanmar, it phases at Zawtika will provide upside to Myan-
refused to be drawn on how it would respond if mar’s energy mix, but if A-6 does not progress
sanctions were imposed. as planned, an estimated 2 trillion cubic feet
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has [56.64bn cubic metres] of gas supply is threat-
vowed to see the coup fail, promising to rally ened. This supply is critical to make up for
enough international support that the military declining volumes from legacy fields.”
will have to relinquish power. The analyst further argued that environmen-
“We will do everything we can to mobilise all tal, social and governance (ESG) risk exposure
the key actors and international community to would weigh on the $2.5bn worth of upstream
put enough pressure on Myanmar to make sure investment that five companies had planned for
that this coup fails,” Guterres said in a February the next five years.
4 interview broadcast by The Washington Post. Wood Mackenzie’s consulting director, Man-
Global energy consultancy Wood Macken- gesh Patankar, said several Chinese-led liquefied
zie has warned that the coup could derail final natural gas (LNG) import projects – including
investment decisions (FIDs) on upstream pro- CNTIC VPower’s existing small-scale terminal and
jects worth $2.5bn over the next decade, with a proposed integrated LNG-to-power project at
Woodside’s A-6 project highlighted as a potential Mee Laung Gyaing – were unlikely to be affected as
candidate for such delays. a result of China having always engaged with both
the military and civilian-led governments.
“However, the Ahlone LNG-to-power pro-
ject led by TTCL with Japanese partners and the
Thilawa LNG-to-power project led by the Japa-
nese consortium of Marubeni-Sumitomo-Mit-
sui, entailing a total investment cost of around
$2.7bn, could face delays,” Patankar added.
The analyst also warned that US “incremental
counter-measures” could lead to a drop-off in the
country’s LNG imports, owing to LNG suppliers
and ship owners finding it increasingly difficult
to do business with Myanmar companies.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 05 04•February•2021