Rakhine News

Malaysia's Petronas has delivered the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import cargoes to Myanmar, the company said on Thursday, marking a new consumer for the super-chilled fuel.The state-owned company's subsidiary Petronas LNG delivered two LNG cargoes to Yangon, Myanmar, in May and June as part of a sales and purchase agreement it had signed with joint-venture company CNTIC VPower earlier this year, Petronas said.As part of the deal, the cargoes were sold on a free-on-board (FOB) basis from the Petronas LNG complex at Bintulu…

At least 32 ethnic Rohingya died on a ship that drifted for weeks after it failed to reach Malaysia, Bangladesh coast guard officials said on Thursday, following the rescue of 396 starving survivors.A human rights group said it believed more boats carrying Rohingya - a Muslim minority - were adrift at sea, with coronavirus lockdowns in Malaysia and Thailand making it harder for them to find refuge."They were at sea for about two months and were starving," a Bangladesh coastguard official told Reuters in a message…

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will on Tuesday hail the role of international law in settling regional conflicts, comments apparently aimed at bolstering Australian efforts to build a coalition against Chinese assertiveness. Bishop, in a speech ahead of a special meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Sydney, will not name China but will argue that international law will stabilise a region strained by rival claims in the South China Sea. "The rules-based order is designed to regulate behaviour and rivalries of and between states…

Bangladesh signed an agreement with Indonesia on Sunday to open talks on imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), as the South Asian country turns to the supercooled fuel to fill a shortfall of domestic natural gas. A letter of intent was signed between two state energy companies, Petrobangla and Pertamina, after a meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who arrived in Dhaka on Saturday. Bangladesh, a country of more than 160 million people…

The death toll in a Myanmar ferry sinking has reached 73, authorities said on Friday, as they wrapped up a week-long search and rescue operation for survivors and prepared to launch an inquiry into the cause of the disaster. Marine accidents are common in Myanmar, where many people rely for transport on crowded boats that are often in a state of disrepair. The ferry sank early on Saturday, about 85 miles (137 km) northwest of Mandalay, Myanmar's second biggest city, as it travelled between the towns of Homalin and Monywa. "We were able to salvage the sunken ferry yesterday and we don't expect to find any more bodies, so we've suspended the official rescue operation," said Ko Ko Naing, an official of Myanmar's social welfare ministry.

A ferry sank in a river in northwestern Myanmar, killing at least 32 people with scores missing, a rescue official said on Monday. About 150 people had been rescued from the Chindwin river in the Sagaing region after the ferry capsized on Saturday, said Sa Willy Frank, head of the regional relief department. As of about 4 p.m. on Monday, 32 bodies had been recovered, leaving more than 60 people still unaccounted for amid a continuing salvage operation, he said. Kyaw Htay Lwin, a lawmaker in the Sagaing regional parliament, said the number of missing could be higher. "I heard from witnesses that the boat was packed with at least 300 passengers, despite its official capacity of around 120," he said. The ferry was travelling from Homalin to Monywa when it sank at about 5 a.m.

Myanmar lands 727 migrants after boat kept offshore for days. Myanmar brought ashore more than 700 "boat people" it had kept at sea for days aboard a seized vessel, as the United States on Wednesday called on the country to help solve a migrant crisis by recognising the rights of its Muslim Rohingya minority. U.S. President Barack Obama has sought to make Myanmar's transition to democracy a legacy of his presidency, and Washington is stepping up pressure on the Southeast Asian nation to tackle what it sees as the root causes of an exodus of migrants across the Bay of Bengal that the region has struggled to cope with. The 727 migrants were found drifting in the Andaman Sea on Friday in an overloaded fishing boat that was taking on water.

Boat with more than 700 aboard intercepted on Friday; Bangladesh says will only take those identified as citizens. Myanmar said a boat crammed with 727 migrants that it has kept stranded at sea for days was being escorted to a "safe" area for identity checks, bringing fresh criticism that it was only prolonging the suffering of people desperate to come ashore. "The operation is starting. They will be taken to a safe destination," Information Minister Ye Htut told Reuters by telephone, adding that the migrants had been provided with food and water. He would not disclose that location due to "security and safety concerns". Earlier, Ye…

More than 700 migrants found packed aboard an overcrowded boat in the Andaman Sea were still being held offshore by Myanmar's navy on Monday, more than three days after the converted fishing vessel was intercepted off the country's coast. "The government is checking their identity, asking what they want to do and where they want to go," government spokesman Ye Htut told Reuters, without providing further details of the boat's location. Government officials have been tight-lipped about the identities of 727 migrants on the overcrowded fishing boat, found drifting and taking on water early Friday, as well as their eventual destination.

A boat packed with more than 700 "boat people" seized off Myanmar's coast was stopped on a small island on Saturday, as officials gave mixed signals about its final destination. Myanmar's navy discovered the boat with 727 migrants off the country's southern coast on Friday, but have since been tight-lipped on the identity of those on board, as well as their fate. Myo Win, the township administrator of Hainggyi Island, in the country's south, told Reuters the boat was taken to nearby Leik Island and the migrants were kept on board while they were provided with food, water and medical help. "The boat won't rest at Leik Island tonight...

Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Myanmar's largest city of Yangon on Wednesday to denounce foreign criticism of the country's treatment of stateless Rohingya Muslims. About 300 people, led by about 30 Buddhist monks, shouted slogans against the United Nations and Western media, who they accuse of unfairly blaming Myanmar for a "boat people" crisis that has seen thousands of trafficked Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants wash up in Southeast Asia in recent weeks. Protest leaders argued that the vast majority of those who have landed or been rescued at sea were citizens of neighbouring Bangladesh, who were pretending to be Rohingya in order to receive refugee protection.

China's biggest oil and gas company China National Petroleum Corp.(CNPC ) has expressed interested in  a terminal in Kyaukphyu in Myanmar  to receive imported Liquefied natural gas (LNG). China National Petroleum Corporation has proposed developing a terminal in Kyaukphyu to receive imported LNG, local media quoted an official from state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise. He said that companies from China, Korea, Japan, Norway, Singapore and Thailand have already proposed investment into LNG development projects in Myanmar, and feasibility studies have been completed. The Myanmar-China natural gas pipeline, which begins at Kyaukphyu in Rakhine State, began full operations in late 2013.

Myanmar's navy found a boat carrying more than 200 Bangladeshis, the government said on Friday, after the military chief said some migrants landing in Malaysia and Indonesia this month are pretending to be Rohingya Muslims so they can get U.N. aid. The western Myanmar state of Rakhine said the boat was from Thailand and the people smugglers' plan had been to send the migrants to Thailand. The remarks are sure to spark concern after the United States lambasted Myanmar this week for failing to address the cause of the crisis, which observers say stems from Myanmar's refusal to recognise the Rohingya, an ethnic minority group living in western Myanmar, as citizens. Most of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya are stateless and live in apartheid-like conditions.

Myanmar has awarded contracts to international oil majors Statoil and ConocoPhillips for oil and gas exploration in a deepwater offshore block, the official Kyemon Daily said on Sunday. The Myanmar newspaper said the two companies' regional subsidiaries - Singapore-registered Statoil Myanmar Private Ltd and ConocoPhillips Myanmar E&P Pte. Ltd. - agreed to invest $323 million in oil and gas exploration in Deepsea Block AD.10, off Myanmar's western Rakhine coast. Under the contracts, signed last week, production sharing agreements would span eight years. The companies will have to undertake environmental impact studies first, the newspaper said.

About 50 people have died in the sinking of an overloaded ferry off the coast of western Myanmar police say. The boat had 209 people on board when it ran into high seas late on Friday on a voyage from the coastal town of Taunggok to Sittwe, capital of the west coast state of Rakhine, officials said. The "Aung Takon 3" went down after leaving the town of Kyaukphyu on its way to Sittwe in western Rakhine state, police said. The country's navy deployed three boats for the search-and-rescue mission. Pyay Nyein, a senior official with the Inland Water Transport Department, said 167 people had been saved, but the rest were either dead or missing and believed to be dead. "Twenty bodies have been found while 27 are still missing. Rescue workers are looking for them," said Nyein.

About 50 people were believed to have drowned off Myanmar when a ferry sank in bad weather, government officials said on Saturday, though residents said they believed more people on the overcrowded vessel had died. The boat had 209 people on board when it ran into high seas late on Friday on a voyage from the coastal town of Taunggok to Sittwe, capital of the west coast state of Rakhine, officials said. "Twenty bodies have been found while 27 are still missing. Rescue workers are looking for them," Pyay Nyein, a senior official from the Inland Water Transport Department, told Reuters. A Ministry of Transport official said the boat was swamped by huge waves and 167 people had been saved, though the missing were believed to be dead.

Three more available blocks off Myanmar's southern Tanintharyi coast are under natural gas exploration with test wells being planned for drilling by Malaysia 's Petronas Company. A geophysical site survey at blocks M-16, M-17 and M-18, with areas ranging from about 13,000 square-kilometers (sq-km) to 14, 000 sq-km, has begun this week and the survey will last over a month until late March. Recent years have seen foreign oil companies increase engagement in oil and gas exploration in Myanmar. Thailand's PTTEP, for example, has covered a number of blocks including M-3, M-4, M- 7, M-9 and M-11 under contracts. Besides, a consortium comprising South Korea's Daewoo International…

Close on the heels of announcing its plans to invest in a steel plant in Vietnam, Essar group is now looking forward to investing in the oil and gas exploration sector in the country. According to sources, Essar Energy Holdings Ltd – the group oil and gas outfit – has recently participated in the ‘2nd international bidding round for open blocks in Song Hong Basin’, offshore northern Vietnam. The bid was submitted for one block on a standalone basis, though the name of the block was not given. Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, known as PetroVietnam, had launched the bidding round in June this year. The blocks are located at average water depths of 60-100 meters covering 50 square km area at 50 to 100 km distance from the shoreline.