17 among 19 foreign companies submitting letters of expression of interest for a joint venture Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) project have done so with a local partner

Nearly all of the 19 foreign companies submitting letters of expression of interest for a joint venture Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) project have done so with a local partner, according to an announcement.

The tender winner is to partner with state-owned Myanma Petrochemical Enterprise to import and distribute the fuel, which is a staple cooking fuel in many of the country’s kitchens.

While several companies are already importing LPG, current supply is uneven and often disrupted, which the state-backed enterprise aims to fix by partnering its operations with a foreign company.

Of the 19 companies signalling their interest, 17 submitted a bid along with a local partner, while two did not. The two which bid without a local partner are both Japanese companies, Chiyoda Corporation and JFE Engineering Corporation. A total of five Japanese companies submitted proposals, along with three each from South Korea, Singapore and Thailand, and one each from India, China, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Some of the international companies that applied are already in Myanmar, including Marubeni Corporation, Daewoo Engineering and Construction, PTT and Puma Energy.

The tender winner will be invited to join Myanma Petroleum Enterprise in developing a new LPG terminal at the site of the No 1 Refinery in Thanlyin township near Yangon, which itself is the subject of a separate tender.

Thai state firm PTT and Singapore-based Puma Energy are the final two candidates for the refinery upgrade projects, according to an announcement from last year.

Myanma Petroleum Enterprise has launched a number of tenders, though many of them have not been completed.

Last year it invited private companies to submit tender applications to join it in running Nyaung Don LPG processing plant. A total of 22 companies submitted letters of expression of interest, but so far no winner has been announced.

Separately, a 2013 tender for LPG import and distribution licences was won by a handful of companies.

Myanmar has three LPG plants which are in need of updating. The plant in Minbu township of Magwe Region opened in 1986, the Nyaung Don plant opened in Ayeyarwady Region in 2005 and the Kyun Chaung plant began in Magwe in 2010. Total installed capacity is 72.85 billion tonnes per year.

Seven local and regional companies have also submitted letters of interest for laboratory services with Myanma Petroleum Enterprise.

Source: http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/business/15751-regional-companies-signal-interest-in-lpg-joint-venture-tender.html

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