Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan has held a meeting with H.E. U Win Khaing, theUnion Minister for Construction, Electricity and Energy of Myanmar.The MyanmarMinister is on an official visit to India to attend thefirst General Assembly of International Solar Alliance (ISA).During the meeting, both Ministers discussed issues of bilateral engagement in the hydrocarbon sector. In the Upstream sector, they discussed the current and future investments by Indian companies in Myanmar. Presently, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) and GAIL have invested in gas producing blocks in Myanmar. OVL also has stakes in exploratory blocks in Myanmar. Indian companies IOCL, NRL and HPCL are exporting petroleum products, lubricants and paraffin wax to Myanmar.
The hydrocarbon engagement between the two sides has been steadily strengthening. Indian PSU companies have invested over US $ 1 billion in the upstream and midstream sectors in Myanmar.Shri Pradhan shared Indian interest to participate in midstream and downstream sectorsin Myanmar, includingsetting up a refinery,storage, distribution and marketing of petroleum products in Myanmar. He also extended proposals to assist Myanmar in training and capacity building in hydrocarbon sector.This was the second visit of Myanmar Minister to India. During his last visit he had visited Panipat refinery of IOCL. Shri Pradhan noted that Myanmar is an important element of India’s ‘Act East Policy’ and also the friendship bridge to ASEAN countries.Both Ministers expressed their keenness to work towards further strengthening the bilateral engagements in the hydrocarbon sector and make it one of the important areas of bilateral cooperation between both the countries.