Natural gas produced from the Shwe Field off Myanmar's Rakhine coast will be exported to China's southwestern region under a new export gas sales and purchase agreement signed between companies from China, Myanmar and South Korea.

The three parties are the China National United Oil Corporation (CNUOC), Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, and a consortium led by the Daewoo International Group Corporation, sources with the CNUOC said Thursday.

Under the agreement signed on Wednesday evening, the Shwe gas will be transmitted through pipeline and partly tapped along the route in Myanmar's territory to promote the economic development of the region, the sources said, adding that the contract agreement is effective for 30 years and it is estimated to start supplying gas in 2013.

The Shwe gas project, located at A-1 block in the Rakhine offshore area, has been developed by the Daewoo consortium comprising South Korea Gas Corporation, India's ONGC Videsh Ltd and Gas Authority of India Ltd.(GAIL).

The Shwe field holds a gas reserve of 4 to 6 trillion cubic- feet (TCF) or 113.2 to 170 billion cubic-meters (BCM), while the Shwephyu 5 TCF and the Mya 2 TCF with a combined proven reserve of 5.7 to 10 TCF of gas being estimated by experts.

Myanmar has abundance of natural gas resources in the offshore areas. With three main large offshore oil and gas fields and 19 onshore ones, Myanmar has proven recoverable reserve of 18.012 trillion cubic-feet (TCF) or 510 billion cubic-meters (BCM) out of 89.722 TCF or 2.54 trillion cubic-meters (TCM)'s estimated reserve of offshore and onshore gas, experts said, adding that the country is also estimated to have 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserve.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily December 26, 2008)