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About 4,000 Motor Vehicles in Yangon Converted to Run on Gas

Posted on: Monday, 2 January 2006, 09:00 CST

About 4,000 motor vehicles in Yangon converted to run on gas

YANGON, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- About 4,000 motor vehicles in Myanmar's Yangon city, which were traditionally run on petrol and diesel, have been converted to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) under a plan to modify all vehicles in the country in terms of fuel operation, sources with the Ministry of Industry-2 said on Monday.

Of the vehicles changed into CNG-operated ones, 3,586 are buses and trucks, while 365 are taxis and saloons, it said.

A total of 12 private companies are involved in the conversion, the sources added.

Myanmar started the move amid sustained rise of crude oil prices in the world and the plan was introduced due partly to the abundance of natural gas in the country.

Myanmar has been using natural gas limitedly to run cars safely after tests on compressed natural gas were carried out in 1986. Such gas brings benefits of saving of fuel, effective use of locally produced gas, prevention of air pollution, speedy flow of passengers and commodities and catching up with modern technology.

With a total of about 900,000 motor vehicles moving in the country now, of which over half are motorcycles, Myanmar's petrol consumption has at least doubled in the past decade as registered, consuming about 100 million gallons (420,000 tons) of petrol and about 340 million gallons (1.4 million tons) of diesel annually in most recent years.

Although Myanmar produced about 6 million barrels (798,000 tons) of crude oil annually at home, yet it could not meet the demand and had to import about 130 million US dollars' worth of the oil per year.

With three main large offshore and 19 onshore oil and gas fields, Myanmar possesses a total of 87 trillion cubic-feet (TCF) or 2.46 trillion cubic-meters (TCM) of gas reserve and 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserve, official statistics show.

Figures also show that in the fiscal year of 2004-05 which ended in March, Myanmar produced 7.48 million barrels of crude oil and 10.69 billion cubic meters (BCM) of gas. Gas export during the year went to 9.5 BCM, earning over 1 billion US dollars.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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