KACHINNEWS.COM --- Kachin News Group

A Chinese truck loaded pipelines is crossing Burmese border Muse in Shan state.  Photo: Kachin News Group

A leading oil security expert has weighed in on the potential dangers of operating twin gas and oil pipelines in northern Shan state while fighting continues between the Burma army and the Kachin Independence Organization along the pipeline route.
A long section of territory controlled by the KIO's armed wing in Shan state lies along the route of the Shwe gas project's twin oil and natural gas pipelines which are currently under construction. When completed, the pipelines will send gas and oil from Burma's Arakan (Rakhine) coast to China's Yunnan region, a distance of nearly 800 KM. Although the Shwe gas project may not be the primary reason behind the army's offensive against the KIO, many observers believe it has certainly fueled the conflict.

Speaking to Russia's Interfax news agency last week, a security consultant with a firm that provides security for oil and gas projects raised concerns about the risks involved with operating the Shwe pipelines while the conflict continues along its route, "We would strongly advise our clients against doing this," said Michael Oxlade from Westminster International.

"Running an over-ground gas pipeline in a location where an armed conflict taking place is absolutely unadvisable; an explosion could easily be caused by a stray bullet. If the pipeline is penetrated it will explode, causing it - and the surrounding area - significant damage" said Oxlade in a March 29 Interfax article.

Since the Kachin conflict began in June 2011 fighting has broken out repeatedly along a stretch of territory slated to be used for the pipeline which has been long under the control of the Kachin Independence Army's 4th Brigade.

Prior to the outbreak of the conflict, a senior commander in the KIO Lt-Gen Gunhtang Gam Shawng warned that the pipeline would be used by Burma's military for its own strategic purposes to crush groups like the KIO. “The pipeline will be a tool and an opportunity for the \[Burmese regime] to eliminate the armed groups,” Lt-Gen Gam Shawng told the New York Times in May 2009.

Originally the initial pipeline route would have avoided most of the KIO's territory, however in early 2011 the pipeline route in Shan state was altered significantly. Under the old route the pipeline was slated to continue east at Hsipaw and reach Lashio before heading north to Kunming, but under the new route the pipeline makes a near 90 degree turn at Hsipaw heading directly north into KIO territory.

An environmental coalition opposed to the pipeline project has uncovered that two firms hired to produce Environmental, Social and Health Impact Assessments (ESHIA) for both the oil and gas pipelines are Western owned. Activists with the Shwe Gas Movement say they have repeatedly written letters to the firms to ask them to disclose the reports yet neither firm has done so.

According to the Shwe Gas Movement, China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), the state-owned firm spearheading the consortium that will build and operate pipelines, hired the Hong Kong branch of the UK-based Environmental Resources Management (ERM) to conduct the ESHIA for the oil pipeline.

A Canadian-owned firm based in Thailand called International Environmental Management Co., Ltd. (IEM), was also hired to conduct the ESHIA for the gas pipeline.  It is unclear whether either firm foresaw in their assessments that the pipeline route would be engulfed in fierce fighting between the Burmese government and KIO.

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