India will start exporting diesel and other petroleum products to Myanmar next month from the Numaligarh refinery in the eastern state of Assam, a petroleum ministry official said Wednesday.
"Initially, tankers will be used to take diesel from Numaligarh by road to Myanmar. We might explore possibilities of laying a pipeline to export diesel at a later stage if technically feasible," said the senior official, who asked not to be named.
The exports will begin next month, the official said.
Myanmar requires some 5 million tonnes of diesel annually and the oil-rich state of Assam can easily meet the demand, he said.
"It would be a profitable business proposition and eventually we might think of exporting other petroleum products," a senior official of Assam's state-owned Numaligarh Refinery said.
The ministry official said natural gas could also be imported from Myanmar to India using a separate pipeline.
"Between four to six trillion cubic feet of gas reserves were discovered recently in Myanmar. It would be economically cheaper to wheel back gas (through a pipeline) from Myanmar for use in India," the ministry official said.
India had strained relations with Myanmar in the past over New Delhi's offer of sanctuary to exile groups.
But the two countries have seen a number of high-level exchanges in the past few years and India in 2002 resumed arms shipments to Myanmar to counter what it saw as Beijing's growing influence in Yangon.
-- AFP