Myanmarmilitary junta has earned USD 993.94 million in eight months starting Januarythis year from the export of natural gas from Rakhine State to Yunnan, revealedthe data from China's general administration of customs (GACC).

The GACCstatistics also confirm that the amount is increased by over 16 percentcompared to the same period last year.

Naturalgas from the Rakhine coast is transported through the China-Myanmar gaspipeline that crosses Magway, Mandalay and Shan State.

Duringthe period, among all countries exporting natural gas to China through thepipeline, Myanmar became the third largest exporter.

Nearly52 billion cubic meters of natural gas were sent to China through the pipelinein 10 years.

Thefour-nation coal development project of the gas pipeline, where SEAGP companyis in charge, was funded by Korea, China, India and Myanmar with USD 1.04billion.

Myanmaroil and natural gas corporation owns 7.36 percent stake in the pipelineproject. As of December 2022, the shareholder's return on investment was 165percent.

Aperson working on Rakhine natural resources, alleged that even though thenatural gas is produced in Rakhine for exporting to China to earn a huge volumeof revenues, the local residents are still living under poverty.

Residentsof  four villages in Maday island, where the Shwe Gas project islocated, have already lost their lands and currently they are struggling tosurvive.

Thosefour villages namely Wra Ma, Kyauktan, Prain and Pathem Dam have a combinedpopulation of 3,000 people. The villagers become poorer as they have lost theirlands for the Chinese projects. Now they are losing the river fishing plots aswell.

Priorto the commissioning of the project, responsible officials from the Myanmargovernment and China National Petroleum Corporation promised the localresidents to provide jobs and electricity. Moreover, they were assured ofdrinking water supply and concrete roads, but nothing was realized for thebenefit of the Rakhine villagers.