Rangoon, Burma: The Burmese military regime has awarded yet another contract to explore for natural gas in the Gulf of Bengal to the South Korean conglomerate Daewoo International Corp, the state media said on Tuesday.

 

 

The fresh contract is for exploration in a block of deep water off Burma ’s Arakan coast, the military government controlled New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

 

 

The exploration now will be in waters next to a block where Daewoo has already discovered estimated reserves of 5.7 to 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

 

 

The newspaper revealed no other details of the deal, which comes in the wake of a slew of hotly contested contracts from other international companies over the past two months.

 

 

Burma’s natural gas reserves have become an increasingly important source for desperately needed foreign currency for the impoverished nation and its military rulers.