Bangladesh Sends Envoys to Myanmar to Resolve Standoff Over Oil

By Jay Shankar

Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Bangladesh is sending envoys to Myanmar today to try to resolve a territorial dispute, as ships from the neighboring countries face off in the Bay of Bengal over potential oil and gas deposits.

``Bangladesh has lodged a strong protest with Myanmar and its ambassador has been summoned twice,'' Nazrul Islam, director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said by telephone from the capital, Dhaka. Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain will lead the team of Bangladeshi officials to the nation formerly known as Burma.

A Myanmar exploration vessel escorted by three smaller naval ships traveled to the area about 50 nautical miles (93 kilometers) southwest of St. Martin's island a week ago, Islam said. Bangladesh insists the area falls within its territorial waters and has demanded the Myanmar vessels withdraw until a maritime boundary can be established through negotiations.

The two impoverished nations are eager to control as much of the potentially energy rich Bay of Bengal as possible. A delegation from Myanmar will arrive in Dhaka on Nov. 16 for a two-day visit to discuss the issue, Islam said.

Bangladesh wants the situation to be ``defused,'' Islam said. Myanmar hasn't publicly commented on the dispute.

Bangladesh had 13.77 trillion cubic feet of natural-gas reserves, or 0.2 percent of the world's total, while Myanmar had 21.19 trillion cubic feet, or 0.3 percent, at the end of 2007, according to BP Plc. Most of this is located in the Bay of Bengal, though not all as it includes onshore fields.

Myanmar and Bangladesh had per capita gross domestic product of $1,900 and $1,400 respectively in 2007, according to U.S. government data.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jay Shankar in Bangalore at jshankar1@bloomberg.net