Myanmar plans energy investments as cities struggle with daily power outages

A girl works on her stitching machine with cell lighting throughout an influence outage in Yangon, Myanmar, Could 24, 2019. REUTERS/Ann Wang

April 21 (Reuters) – Myanmar’s junta authorities plans to extend funding within the vitality sector, in search of to shore up the provision of energy because the nation grapples with prolonged each day blackouts, its info minister stated on Thursday.

The outages have compounded financial woes confronted by atypical residents nonetheless reeling from the turmoil that has ensued for the reason that army seized energy final yr.

Minister of Info Maung Maung Ohn blamed the outages on rising liquefied pure gasoline costs as a result of Russia-Ukraine battle and on what he referred to as “terrorist motion” linked to the Folks’s Defence Pressure, a gaggle backed by an underground authorities set as much as rival the junta.

He repeated denials of a gas scarcity. Lengthy queues of motorists had been seen at petrol stations earlier this week however have since largely subsided. learn extra

“Rumours of a scarcity which have unfold on social media are misinformation,” he advised a digital briefing, including that Myanmar had 45 million gallons of petrol and 70 million gallons of diesel in inventory.

Maung Maung Ohn stated the federal government’s vitality investments will centre on repairing infrastructure and on pure gasoline and renewable vitality.

Myanmar has launched into photo voltaic initiatives with a mixed capability of 390-megawatts and introduced tenders for an additional 18 with a mixed capability of 635-MW. A 1,390-megawatt LNG-power plant being constructed with three Chinese language corporations is slated to start operations in 2027.

The operation of Myanmar’s largest gasoline discipline, the Yadana, has not been affected by the withdrawal of TotalEnergies SE (TTEF.PA), Funding Minister Aung Naing Oo advised the identical briefing.

Chevron Corp (CVX.N) has additionally stated it will exit, however the authorities has not acquired formal notification, he added.

He famous the sphere’s output has been declining since 2021. The oil majors pulled in another country citing the humanitarian state of affairs.

Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Manufacturing Pcl (PTTEP.BK) plans to take over the sphere’s operations in July. Its mother or father agency PTT Pcl (PTT.BK) and different corporations that function in a particular financial zone are exempt from a central financial institution order requiring international trade deposits to be transformed to native forex, stated Aung Naing Oo.

Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng in Bangkok; Modifying by Edwina Gibbs

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.