Newswire: Burma seeks investors

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210805 :Burma seeks investors for $659 mln projects
    BANGKOK, March 21 (Reuter) - Burma plans to construct an
onshore natural gas pipeline, a gas turbine generation plant and
a fertiliser plant valued at $659 million and is seeking foreign
investment, a government official said on Thursday.
   "We want to get foreign investors to help finance the
projects," said U Tin Tun, deputy director of the engineering
department of state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.
    Tin Tun said at an Asia Pipeline Projects '96 conference in
Bangkok that the gas pipeline would run from near the Yadana
gasfield in the Martaban Gulf to the Irrawaddy Delta area.
    Upon completion in 1998, about 100 million cubic feet per
day (MMCFD) of natural gas from the offshore Yadana field would
be pumped to land in the delta area, he said.
    The natural gas would be consumed domestically.
    Tin Tun declined to give the cost estimates for each of the
three projects planned. He only gave a total value.
    The gas turbine generation plant to be sited onshore near
the Yadana gasfield will be able to generate 200 megawatts per
day, Tin Tun said. It would be completed in 1998.
    "Burma is now using about 800 megawatts of electricity a day
and the country will be able to produce a total of 1,000
megawatts of electricity per day when the gas turbine generation
plant is completed," Tin Tun said. "It's still not enough for
the country which sees many new factories coming up."
    He said the fertiliser plant in the same area would have a
maximum capacity of 1,700 tonnes a day and would be used solely
by Burma for its staple crops. It was also planned for
completion in 1998.
    "The feasibility studies for this so-called three-in-one
project are still under way," he added.
    -- Bangkok newsroom 
 REUTER