Russian firm to explore for oil, gas in Myanmar

YANGON, Sept 9 - Myanmar's state oil company and Russian firm Nobel Oil have agreed to explore for oil and gas at two onshore blocks in the military-ruled southeast Asian country, an official newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The New Light of Myanmar said Nobel, the fourth Russian energy firm to go in to the former Burma, and the government had signed exploration contracts for parts of Hukaung and U-Ru in northern Kachin State, near the Chinese border.

Along with Beijing, Moscow is a major diplomatic supporter and supplier of military hardware to Myanmar's junta, which is under Western sanctions.

According to official data, Myanmar has at least 90 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves and 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves in the country's 19 onshore and three major offshore oil and gas fields.

Energy exports are Myanmar's biggest source of foreign exchange.

Official data show that the junta earned $2.5 billion in 2007-2008 (April/March) from sales of natural gas, mainly to neighbouring Thailand, up from $2.16 billion in 2006-2007.