As reported in our articles during the past few weeks, and confirmed this week by the Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MOEE), the overdue Chinese-backed liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Yangon will start operating “very soon”.

Petronas LNG Ltd, a subsidiary of the Malaysian state-owned firm, delivered two LNG cargoes in May and June under a sales and purchase pact signed in early 2020 with China National Technical Import and Export Cooperation (CNTIC) and Hong Kong-listed VPower. The JV between the Chinese and Hong-Kong companies had won the 3 largest (out of 5) government emergency power-generation tenders in September last year.

With the lowest level of access to grid-electricity in ASEAN, with only half of the country’s population connected, and a demand growing between 15 to 10% per annum, Myanmar has struggled to cope with providing energy for individual and businesses over the past few years, causing regular blackouts.