Shale Exploration Planned in Myanmar

Two Singapore based companies, SNOG Pte Ltd. and UPR Pte., Ltd, are reportedly planning to explore for shale resources in Myanmar's Karen state in co-operation with Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.

The exact location given by the New Light of Myanmar is Mapale, a few kilometres north of the main border crossing next to Thailand’s Mae Sot, Myawaddy.

The New Light does not clarify whether shale gas or oil shale will be explored for, but Mapale is within 20 miles of the Thai border near the Mae Sot shale oil basin, which Apiradee Suwannathong from Thailand’s Shinawatra University notes is the “largest oil shale resource in Thailand”.

A recent report by the US Government’s Energy Information Agency (EIA) however suggests that global deposits of natural gas were increased by 40% if shale gas was taken into account. The majority of the reserves in Asia are thought to be in China, but India’s north east that borders Burma is also considered a possibility or an “assessed basin without resource estimate”.

Thailand and Burma were not included the EIA study, but a 2007 report by Apiradee Suwannathong suggests that the Mae Sot Basin has 952.38 million tons of recoverable shale rock which could produce 182.86 million barrels of oil.

Source: Eurasia Review