RANGOON — Burma’s state-owned Myanma Petroleum Products Enterprise (MPPE) has chosen Puma Energy Group from a shortlist of four firms as its partner to distribute jet fuel, as demand rises from new airports and a boom in tourist arrivals.
MPPE is the sole distributor of jet fuel in the Southeast Asian country, providing 28 million gallons of fuel at 11 airports.
“MPPE will soonest sign an agreement with the tender winner while arrangements will be made to jointly carry out import and distribution of aviation fuel at the remaining airports in the country under the joint-venture agreement,” MPPE said in a statement issued late on Friday.
Puma Energy Group Pte Ltd operates in more than 40 countries and posted turnover of US$12 billion in 2013, according to its website. Its jet fuel distribution business services 41 airports in Central and South America and in Africa.
Demand at Burma’s three international airports in Rangoon, Mandalay and the capital, Naypyidaw, is expected to climb as tourism and business grows amid liberal reforms underway after nearly a half century of isolation under army rule.
Myanmar expects to receive five million tourists in 2015, up from three million targeted in 2014, compared with two million in 2013 and one million in 2012.
Thai energy giant PTT, which along with its subsidiaries accounts for 12 percent of Thai stock market capitalization, was the reserve winner for the Burma jet fuel tender, MPPE said.
