Daewoo is the operator of the block with 60% stake, while Korea's Kogas has a 10% interest; India's ONGC has 20%, and GAIL a 10% share. "In all, ten companies, mostly from China, Japan, and Korea put in bids. State-run GAIL (India) Ltd also bid but was told that its bid was not the highest," a source said. Marubeni of Japan and Kogas are reported to be the top bidders for the LNG. The Japanese firm is believed to have offered a price close to $7/ millionBtu, while GAIL has offered about $5, the same price as it offered it for transporting the gas through the proposed pipeline. The source said that "officially, the bids are still under evaluation, but companies like GAIL have already been informed of the rejection of their bid. If MOGE accepts the LNG bids, the Myanmar-India pipeline will never be realized." However, it is possible that the Indian government will insist on taking its share of gas from the A-1 and A-3 blocks, but the volumes it will get may not support a pipeline. India can, in that case, take its share as compressed natural gas (CNG). The development solution for the blocks, which contain the Shwe, Mya, and Shwe Phyu gasfields and other exploration targets, is expected to be finalized soon. The three gasfields contain independently-certified combined recoverable reserves of up to 8.6t cuft. Originally, China, India, Thailand, and Korea had bid for the gas; while the three former countries proposed pipelines for transportation of the gas, Korea proposed the LNG alternative. GAIL had envisaged the import of gas through a 1,573-km land pipeline from Myanmar via the NE Indian states of Mizoram and Assam to West Bengal and finally to Gaya in Bihar. China was planning a 2,380-km long pipeline from the gasfields in Arakan northwards to its Yunnan province, while Thailand's PTT proposed dualling its existing pipeline for importing gas from Myanmar's Yetagun and Yadana gasfield. But in October, MOGE deemed the initial offers "unsatisfactory" and subsequently invited bids for LNG. PTT, the former Petroleum Authority of Thailand, is now understood to be interested in importing LNG from Myanmar: the company is in the market for 2m tons/yr of LNG from 2011 to supply for country's first LNG project. An LNG alternative would also be welcomed by project partner Kogas, currently the world's largest single LNG customer. It is looking for additional volumes because term contracts with some of its existing suppliers, such as Indonesia's Arun, expire in the next few years.