Australian energy company Woodside finds natural gas off the coast of Myanmar as country embarks on political transformation. Photo by num_skyman/UPI/Shutterstock

PERTH, Australia, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Australian energy company Woodside Petroleum said it found enough natural gas in an exploration well offshore Myanmar to continue appraisal activity.

Woodside announced it ran through a 420-foot column of natural gas while drilling in the Shwe Yee Htun-1 exploration well located off the western coast of Myanmar.


Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said in a statement the results for exploration in the deep waters off the coast of Myanmar were positive.

"This discovery is an encouraging outcome for future exploration and appraisal activity in the area," he said.

Woodside has a stake in six offshore basins off the western Myanmar coast and the results follow historic elections last year that brought Democracy activist and former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi to a position of power through the National League for Democracy.

On Monday, Suu Kyi marked the occasion of the country's 68th anniversary of independence from Britain by saying Myanmar, a country known formerly as Burma, was maturing.

"Some people are worried to see changes in the country," she was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying. "But changes happen every time and every second."

Myanmar has been plagued by ethnic violence under military rule for decades. Global energy companies have shown a greater interest in Myanmar since military rule ended in the country with general elections in 2010.

Woodside was among those signing up early for the opportunity to tap into frontier basins off the western Myanmar coast.