China is about to buy all natural gas in wells in Myanmar’s offshore area, which would deal a blow to South Korea’s hopes of securing one more direct energy import source, news reports said on Wednesday.

The wells in Myanmar’s A1 and A3 gas fields were explored and developed by an international consortium led by South Korean trading company Daewoo International Corporation.

Daewoo holds a 60-per-cent stake in the consortium, while the Korea Gas Corporation, India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and the Gas Authority of India share the rest.

The wells holds a gas reserve of 4.5 to 8.5 trillion cubic feet, the largest among overseas gas reserves South Korean companies have developed.

The so called Shwe natural gas field was discovered by Daewoo on the Western Arakan coast of the Bay of Bengal.

The Myanmar government recently decided to sell to China the right to purchase natural gas developed in the A1 and A3 gas wells off its north-western coast, the Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo said.

An unnamed senior government official was quoted by the paper as saying that an official announcement was pending, but Myanmar accepted China’s offer to install pipelines linking the two countries for free.

But the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy in Seoul said on Wednesday that no decision has been made on whether Myanmar would sell its natural gas to China via a pipeline or in form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by ship.

As part of its plan to reduce its reliance on Middle Eastern energy, the Seoul government had planned to import directly 2.7 million tons of natural gas a year from the wells in Myanmar, more than 11 per cent of last year’s imports, the Chosun Ilbo said.

“Basically, the government’s diplomatic efforts to consolidate the nation’s energy independence have failed,” a ministry official was quoted as saying.

In a related development, a group of regional and international non-governmental organizations resisting the Shwe gas project, plans its fourth “Global Day of Action” against the project next Monday.

The Shwe Gas Movement voices concern that the income from gas exports would go directly to the Myanmar military regime and by-pass the people.

It says it expects thousands of activists from about 20 countries around the world would participate in the day of action.

It wants to urge governments and corporations involved to halt the project “until there is assurance that the people of the whole of Burma” can participate in the decision-making process.