Hyundai wins Myanmar gas platform order

South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, has won a $1.4 billion deal to build an offshore gas platform in Myanmar. It said it secured the order from Daewoo International, a South Korean trading company which is leading a consortium to develop the gasfield off Rakhine state near the border with Bangladesh.

Hyundai said it would build a platform capable of producing 500 million cubic feet of gas per day. Daewoo International plans to supply gas from the field by May 2013 to China. The shipbuilder said an official contract would be signed in December after Myanmar’s approval.

Daewoo International in August announced investment of some 1.7 billion dollars to develop the gasfield as head of a consortium including state-run companies from India and South Korea. Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, is under economic sanctions by the United States and Europe because of its human rights record. But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened as neighbours such as China, India and Thailand spend billions of dollars for a share of its oil and gas reserves.