Åshild Kolås & Stein Tønnesson of the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) note that offshore natural gas is now the major source of income for the Burmese military regime. A wider concern is "the current Sino-Indian rivalry over Burmese natural gas from the Shwe field", which, they suggest, "may give rise to further competition to assist the Burmese."
Kolås, Åshild & Stein Tønnesson (2006) Burma and Its Neighbours: The Geopolitics of Gas. Austral Policy Forum. Melbourne.