PTTEP president Maroot Mrigadat said the company's fourth well in the Zawtika-2 area had found natural gas with a flow rate of 109.5 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) on average, the highest rate of all wells drilled at M9.

The company is preparing to drill four or five more appraisal wells to confirm the primary data of M9 Block petroleum reserves and to boost its development plan to come on stream in 2011 or 2012, Maroot said in a statement released yesterday.

Since early 2007, PTTEP has found natural gas in four exploration wells at M9: Zawtika-1A, Gawthaka-1, Kaknonna-1, and the latest well Zawtika-2.

The Zawtika-2 exploration well started drilling on March 9. The company drilled to a depth of 3,500 metres and found six zones of natural gas-bearing formations.

The flow rates have thus far been modest and no associated condensate has been tapped, according to PTTEP sources.

Nonetheless, PTTEP still plans to start production from the offshore area in 2011 or 2012, to be piped onshore and across the Thai-Burmese border to Thailand.

Burma currently supplies Thailand with 869mmscfd of natural gas, delivered by offshore and onshore pipelines from reserves in the Gulf of Martaban to Ratchaburi province, where it is used to generate electricity. The Kingdom's total use of natural gas is 3,222mmscfd, accounting for 37 per cent of its energy needs, 27 per cent of which comes from neighbouring Burma.

The majority of the country's natural gas is supplied from offshore reserves in the Gulf of Thailand, but these are expected to start to decline within two years.

M9 Block is in the Gulf of Martaban about 300 kilometres south of Rangoon. PTTEP has held a production-sharing contract with the Burmese government since 2003 and has a 100-per-cent interest in the M7 and M9 blocks.