China's “four-six” transnational cooperation has explored new models of international energy cooperation. In an interview with a journalist on 9 september, the relevant head of the china oil and gas group corporation stated that myanmar was rich in natural resources and connected to south and south-east asia, with great potential to become a regional business hub, and that the future of chinese oil or cooperation in oil petrochemical and gas utilization projects downstream would also bring more employment locally in myanmar。
The sino-myanmar oil and gas pipeline project, funded by six investors from china, myanmar, the republic of korea and india, established south-east asia gas pipeline ltd. And south-east asia oil pipeline ltd., respectively, with the chinese oil stock ratio of 50. 9 per cent. Of these, the gas pipeline was jointly financed by the four countries, and the crude oil pipeline was jointly financed by china and myanmar。
The sino-myanmar gas pipeline is 793 kilometres long and 12 billion square miles/year designed, with a first phase investment of $2. 15 billion in project construction; the sino-myanmar oil pipeline is 771 kilometres long, with a design volume of 23 million tons/year, with a first phase investment of $2. 25 billion; and, as a complement to the sino-myanmar oil pipeline, a 300,000 tons class crude oil terminal has been built in made island with an annual offload capacity of 23 million tons。
Energy cooperation is one of the important areas of cooperation between china and myanmar. At the end of june this year, in a meeting with the president of myanmar, thein sein, premier li keqiang of the state council stated that china and myanmar had a long history of friendship, and that china, together with the myanmar side, was willing to expand its areas of cooperation by taking advantage of the complementary advantages of resources, funds, markets and so on, in conjunction with the two countries ' development strategies and industrial plans。
It was revealed that, from 28 july 2013 to 15 january 2014, the chinese-myanmar gas pipeline had cumulatively delivered 487 million cubic metres to the country, easing domestic winter gas stress, while cumulatively distributing 2,717,000 cubic metres of gas to the country, providing energy support to the rapidly developing myanmar economy and society。
Multi-stakeholder, cross-border operations are a major highlight of the china-myanmar oil and gas pipeline project. Compliance and integrity support the integration and trust of multicultural shareholders. In the case of the board of directors, which was “the easiest” to reach a “facilitation”, the managing director of the southeast asia pipeline company and the managing director of the joint venture, kang chang-hyung, revealed that after a season, the board now had to be preceded by adequate communication at the working level with various shareholders to avoid disputes。
The oil-related manager stated that the construction process for the oil and gas pipeline project in myanmar was managed in accordance with international rules and that it was essential to ensure the smooth operation of the project. The south-east asia joint venture, starting with the pre-construction phase of the project, operates strictly in accordance with international pipeline project specifications and models, including equipment selection, design and construction, and uses a legally compliant model of international bidding to introduce participating units and suppliers, giving priority to local enterprises in resource-sovereign countries. Currently, qualified companies from myanmar, india, china, the united states, germany, the united kingdom, the united arab emirates and thailand are involved。
In fact, the china-myanmar gas pipeline is myanmar's second natural gas export route, and besides supporting its energy supply, foreign exchange, taxes, transit fees, right-of-way fees, training funds and investment dividends also generate significant direct revenues for myanmar. Localization of labour use also provides significant local employment for projects in myanmar. According to the head of the project, 226 myanmar enterprises have been involved in the construction of the project, reaching a peak of 6,000 people from myanmar. Local workers have worked more than 2. 9 million hours, and local staff in the central myanmar pipeline project are increasing. At the same time, the project's investment in social services amounted to $24. 26 million, benefiting such areas as education, health, water and electricity。
One of the major problems for chinese enterprises to “off to sea” is the unpredictable and insurmountable political risks. In 2012, deep-seated changes in the country's political system resulted in negative public opinion on the part of some non-governmental organizations against the construction of pipelines; the change in government resulted in repeated changes in the entry and exit of project personnel, material declarations and tax policies, resulting in a surge in workload; and ethnic and religious conflict in myanmar also seriously affected the normal construction of pipelines。
By the end of september 2012, there was an overall deviation of more than 20 per cent between the actual and planned pace of work in the offshore sector, 271 km of dual-wire welding for the line works and more than 85 per cent of the remaining work for the site works, with a five-month delay in the overall pace of camp construction。
In response, the project manager disclosed to china news agency journalists that the project management had decided to adopt a “cutting workload” approach, in which a section was extracted from an unorganized contractor, the equipment was converted from inefficient b to a, and the gas pipeline was finally ready for production.” although the country's socio-economic situation has changed somewhat in the course of the reform process, we have enjoyed the strong support of the government of myanmar and the local people throughout, and this is a very important reason why our project has been able to achieve a phased outcome, said the person responsible。
The smooth cooperation of the “four parties” of the sino-myanmar oil and gas pipeline project demonstrates that chinese enterprises are active supporters of international rules and can be trusted partners。
With regard to the future china-myanmar cooperation plan, china's oil-related managers have revealed that china-oil is actively pursuing the oil and gas exploration and development of block a6/8 in western upper myanmar, as well as the construction of midstream gas and crude oil pipelines, and has supported the construction of the fourth and fifth fertilizer plants in yangon province, myanmar. The next step could be to consider cooperation in the downstream petrochemical and gas utilization projects。
“being convinced that this will contribute significantly to the development of myanmar's energy economy”, the manager pointed out to the china news agency journalist that myanmar is rich in natural resources and an important link between south and south-east asia, with great potential to become a future business hub for the region. (concluded)
