The Ministry of Electricity and Energy will try to finalise a scrutiny process of tender proposals from foreign companies for joint venture fuel sale businesses in Myanmar this year.
There are only three companies that submitted proposals to the Ministry so far. The companies are from India, Indonesia and Singapore.
In the process, if the tender proposals are not able to match with the rules and regulations set by the Ministry, a new tender will be called, according to the Ministry.
“At the beginning, we received four investment proposals. After scrutiny, we rejected a proposal from a Japanese company because it didn’t match with our rules and regulations. Now we are carefully scrutinising the other proposals,” U Myint Zaw, director of state-run Myanmar Petroleum Products Enterprise (MPPE) under the Ministry, told Myanmar Business Today.
The Ministry called a tender for joint venture investment in fuel sale in the local market to control the market from wild fluctuations and to provide accessibility to quality fuel for the public. The selected company has to sell the fuel at the state-owned stations during a trial period, and then can extend stations based on market demand.
“There are many privately-owned fuel stations in Yangon. We have to do a trial period in the market to compete with them. So, we plan to sell fuel at the state-owned stations. Market prices will be competitive after launching the fuel stations, and people will get to buy fuel at a cheaper price,” U Myint Zaw claimed.
Tender offers for joint venture fuel and petroleum product sales was introduced in 2015 and brought in 14 applicants, but only four of them submitted final proposals.
There are 12 state-owned fuel stations in Myanmar, and three stations are under consideration for the joint-venture fuel sale. The enterprise aims to finish the tender selection this year and launch operations in 2017.
The Ministry was the sole operator of the fuel market in Myanmar until fuel sales were liberalised to private firms in 2010.
With long-term leasing contracts to private firms, 261 state-owned fuel stations were privatised in 2010. Now, there are 127 private-owned fuel stations in Yangon, and 393 fuel stations in Mandalay. In total, there are 1,599 stations across the nation.
Most of the fuel in the local market is imported from Singapore by the Ministry and then distributed to the private firms.
Source: Myanmar Business Today
