At least 200,000 cubic feet of gas have been released from the Kanbauk to Myaingkalay gas pipeline as officials attempt to repair a leak in northern Mon State.

The leak occurred last week in Kamawet village, Mudon Township. According to a local resident, it occurred at the joint connecting two sections of pipeline. The escaping gas did not ignite.

According to eyewitnesses, for the next two days pipeline workers released gas at mains above and below the leak, in Waekali village, Thanbyuzayat Township and the Taung Wine quarter of Moulmein, Mon State’s capital city. Forty-four miles of 20-inch diameter pipeline link Waekali and Taung Wine.

Area residents, meanwhile, report being afraid that the gas release will cause fires in their villages, which are bone dry and prone to fire as the 2009 hot season begins.

“The escaping gas made a flame as high as a palm tree,” said a resident of Waekali. “The villagers are very afraid that there will be wind and the fire will spread to the village.”

A senior monk in Myaing Thayar quarter of Moulmein, meanwhile, said that his area has not received any electricity since the gas was released.

The Kanbauk to Myaingkalay pipeline brings fuel from gas fields off the cost of Burma’s southern Tenasserim Divison to cement factories in Myaingkalay, Karen State. The pipeline has suffered repeated leaks and explosions since it was built in

2001, including three explosions in 2008. Though area residents say the accidents are due to poor quality joints linking sections of the pipeline, Burmese government officials often blame explosions on the activities of armed insurgents.

“No one has the confidence to believe in the strength of the gas pipeline,” a Kwan-hlar villager told IMNA. “The joints in the pipeline have cracks in some places. It is very dangerous – it could explode near the village. Most of the explosions are not because of the rebels. They are just from the weak joints.”