myanmar

June 24, 2014

Myanmar druglord-tycoon scion, CNOOC partner Steven Law visits Canada

The Irrawaddy reports that Steven Law, also known as U Htun Myint Naing and (under various spellings) Luo Bingzhong 罗秉忠, a Myanmar tycoon under US sanctions due to his link to the former military regime and his father’s heroin business, has been to Canada as part of an official trade delegation.

Western criticism of Mr Law’s background and connections has hardly hampered his congolomerate’s partnership with various Chinese state-owned companies, notably CNOOC, as I took the trouble to expound some time ago (‘The Law of the jungle‘).

October 22, 2013

Myanmar-China pipeline now fully operational

So says Xinhua. CNPC has a majority stake in the project, which starts in Myanmar’s coastal Rakhine (Arakan) state, where Chinese-invested projects have a history of conflict with disaffected locals (I’ve touched upon CNOOC’s activities in the area). The pipeline was being ‘tested’ by the end of July, but Chinese customs recorded no Burmese gas imports in August (Platts).

October 11, 2013

Three Gorges plans wind farms in Myanmar

Posted on Tumblr on Oct 10.

China’s state-owned Three Gorges Corporation is surveying possible locations for wind farms in the western coastal regions of Myanmar, where it expects to be eventually able to produce over 1GW. Three Gorges and Thailand’s Gunkul Engineering have recently agreed with the Burmese goverment to launch feasibility studies and expect to be building farms by 2015. A total capacity that might surpass 4GW wouldn’t hurt a country where less than a third of the population has access to electricity. The plans go back to 2011. Three Gorges owns 21% of Portuguese utility EDP and 49% of its renewables subsidiary EDPR.