Canadian firm to start drilling for gas off war-torn Myanmar’s coast

Exploration firm Canadian Foresight Group (CFG) plans to start offshore drilling at one of the world’s largest natural gas fields in Myanmar at the end of this year, operating alongside a Western-sanctioned state enterprise controlled by the military regime.

CFG executives led by its chair Songning Shen, a Canadian citizen of Chinese descent, on Monday met with executives of Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) and regime-appointed Tanintharyi Region Chief Minister Zaw Naing Oo to discuss exploration and drilling at Block M15, according to regime media.

The Singapore-registered company won the bidding for Block M15 in the Tanintharyi deep-sea zone in a product-sharing contract with MOGE as far back as March 2015.

The sudden move comes after the regime in June announced the discovery of four new offshore gas fields, holding a estimated combined 109 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The largest is located in the Tanintharyi offshore area and holds estimated 95 TCF at 90 percent probability.

Potentially one of the biggest reserves in the world, reports indicates that it lies within Block M 15, which covers an area of over 13,000 sq. km near Kadan Island off the southern Tanintharyi coast in the Andaman Sea. CFG holds an 80 percent interest in the block, according to its 2017 report.

BBC Burmese News estimated that project has potential to generate revenue equivalent to 40 percent of Myanmar’s total foreign currency earnings.

Following the 2021 military coup, MOGE has been heavily sanctioned internationally since it serves as the regime’s single largest source of foreign currency, funding its ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But Canada has not yet imposed direct sanctions on MOGE, despite participating in other coordinated international sanctions against the regime.

Advocacy group Justice for Myanmar first asked the Canadian government to impose sanctions against the MOGE in 2023, when another Canadian company was preparing to invest in a separate offshore gas extraction project.