Yangon - China is conducting a survey on the feasibility of
using Myanmar's Yanbyai island as an oil terminal to supply a planned
1,440-kilometre pipeline from the Bay of Bengal to Yunnan province in
southern China, news reports said Sunday.
'The state China National Petroleum Corporation ... is conducting
a detailed assessment with the state Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise
(MOGE) for a crude oil terminal on the Myanmar island of Yanbyai, off
Myanmar's Rakhine coast, fringing the Bay of Bengal,' said the
Myanmar Times, an English-language weekly.
An 800-kilometre pipeline would be needed to connect the island
to the Chinese border and then another 640 kilometres through Yunnan
to the provincial capital of Kunming, where a refinery is also
planned, said the article.
The pipeline plan, still in its infancy, is part of China's
ambition to devise a new petroleum passage for imported oil from the
Middle East to China without needing to go through the Strait of
Malacca, diplomatic sources in Yangon say.
Analysts suggest one oil pipeline across Myanmar might cost
between 2 billion and 3 billion dollars and might eventually handle
up to 40 million tons per year.
There has been speculation that the Chinese would use the
existing Myanmar port of Sittwe, closer to Bangladesh and founded by
the British in the 19th century.
'But there are two reasons why the Chinese prefer the tiny port
town of Kyauk Phyu, about 112 kilometres farther south: security and
isolation. The island is remote with virtually no transport
infrastructure linked to it. The only way to get there is by ship or
by plane using a small airstrip,' said the Myanmar Times.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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