China's growing influence in our backyard.
by Vishnu Sharma on Sep 24, 2007 08:53 AM
With proven natural-gas reserves of about 2.48 trillion cubic meters, representing 1.4% of the world supply, and little capital or infrastructure to exploit it, Myanmar is increasingly at the center of a growing competition between India and China to develop and transport offshore natural gas to their respective home markets.
Compared with China, India's growing need to import energy is often overlooked. Indian economic growth is second only to China's, with increases of about 9% in gross domestic product in each of the past two years, and like China, India is dependent on oil and gas imports to fuel its expanding economy.
