MEA, MoP&NG at Loggerheads on Losing Myanmar Gas to China

摘要

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Petroleum Ministry are at loggerheads over the loss of Myanmar gas to China. Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon has alleged that the Petroleum Ministry did not make "concerted efforts" to secure the gas, triggering a response from the Petroleum Secretary M S Srinivasan, who has written to Menon, saying that he (Menon) was unaware of the developments and out-of-sync with his deputies. It began with a meeting presided over by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister on June 20th. Menon chided Srinivasan for not having put in adequate efforts to secure gas from Blocks A-l and A-3. He said that Myanmar was "still open" to gas export to India and "if sincere efforts are made in this direction, it might still be possible to source gas from A-l and A-3 Blocks for India".