MGR Online — Energy exploration company Canadian Foresight Group (CFG) is planning to begin drilling one of the world's largest offshore natural gas fields off the coast of Myanmar later this year, operating in partnership with a state enterprise under the control of the military government that has been sanctioned by Western nations.
Myanmar's state media reported that executives of CFG, led by Songning Shen, the company's Canadian-Chinese chairman, met with executives of Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) and Saw Nay Oo, Chief Minister of Tanintharyi Region, to discuss exploration and drilling of Block M15.
This petroleum exploration and development company, which has a subsidiary registered in Singapore, won the bid for Block M15 in the deep-water Tanintharyi zone under a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) with MOGE as far back as March 2015.
However, this sudden development came after the Myanmar government announced in June the discovery of four new offshore gas fields estimated to hold a combined natural gas reserve of more than 109 trillion cubic feet. The largest of these is located in the offshore area of Tanintharyi and is estimated to hold approximately 95 trillion cubic feet of reserves at a 90% confidence level.
Reports indicate that the gas field could be one of the largest reserves in the world. It is situated in Block M15, which covers an area of more than 13,000 square kilometres near Kadan Island off the southern coast of Tanintharyi in the Andaman Sea. CFG's reports state that the company holds an 80% stake in the block.
BBC Burmese reported that the project has the potential to generate revenue equivalent to 40% of Myanmar's total foreign exchange earnings.
Following the coup in 2021, MOGE has been subject to heavy international sanctions, as it is the military government's largest source of foreign exchange revenue — funds that have been used to continuously finance war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Canada, however, has not yet imposed direct sanctions on MOGE, even though it has participated in the coordinated sanctions that several countries have jointly imposed on Myanmar's military government.
The anti-military activist group Justice for Myanmar had called on the Canadian government to sanction MOGE for the first time in 2023, when another Canadian company was preparing to invest in a separate offshore gas extraction project.
