Associated Press

Yangon, May 9:

India’s Essar Oil Ltd has signed contracts with Myanmar for on-and off-shore oil and gas exploration in western parts of the military-ruled country, an official newspaper reported today.

The firm signed the production-sharing deals with the state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise to explore Block A2 off Rakhine state and onshore Block L in the same region, the Myanma Ahlin daily reported.

Essar is the first foreign company to sign an onshore oil and gas production agreement with Myanmar since the junta announced in March that all onshore blocks would in future be reserved for the state energy enterprise. The reason for the decision to award a contract to a foreign company despite the policy change was not immediately known.

Essar Oil is also the first private Indian firm to sign energy exploration contracts in Myanmar. The last production sharing contract for onshore exploration in Myanmar was signed by a Chinese-Singaporean consortium in January.

The latest contracts were signed on Saturday in the capital Yangon, by Essar’s managing director AN Sinha and San Lwin, managing director of Myanmar’s oil and gas enterprise.

The ceremony was attended by Myanmar energy minister Brig Gen Lun Thi, the newspaper reported.