Total takes stake in Myanmar's energy

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PARIS, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- French supermajor Total announced it acquired a 40 percent interest in a production sharing contract with a Thai company for an offshore basin in Myanmar.

Total signed with Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production the deal for Block M-11 in waters off of Myanmar's coast. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

PTTEP said it completed the 3-D seismic survey of the area in March and plans, with its partners, to drill one exploration well in the region by the third quarter of next year. The Thai company stays on as the operator in the deal.

The block covers an area of 2,074 feet and water depths of 650-7,500 feet.

Total officials were in Myanmar in June to discuss prospects in the energy sector. The company said that, as of 2007, Myanmar was producing around 180,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with 90 percent of that represented by natural gas.

Washington in June lifted restrictions on U.S. investments in Myanmar, which in 2010 began a series of political reforms.