The French group withdraws contracts on the Yadana gas field and linking it to a transport company. The process will be effective at the latest at the end of the six-month notice period.
Le Monde with AFP
The French energy giant, Totalnergies, announced, on Friday, January 21, his withdrawal from Burma, where he was a partner and operator of the Yadana gas field. This was a request from human rights NGOs after the military coup that took place in 2021.
“The context, which continues to deteriorate in Myanmar, in terms of human rights and more generally rule of law, since the celebration of February 2021 has led us to re-evaluate the situation and no longer allows to TotalEnergies to make sufficient positive contribution in this country, “said the group in a communiqué
The withdrawal process “provided for the Yadana field contracts and the MGTC transport company in Myanmar” is engaged “without any financial counterpart for TotalEnergies”, specifies the energy giant, implanted for a long time in the country. It will be effective at the latest at the end of the six-month notice and the interests of Toternergies will be distributed among the current partners, except refusal on their part, while the operations will be taken up by one of them.
Nearly 1,500 civilians killed since the coup
TotalEnergies is a partner, up to 31.24%, and operator of the Yadana field alongside Unocal-Chevron Americans (28.26%), pep (25.5%), a subsidiary of the National Society of Thai energy, and the Burmese MOGE state society (15%). The French group also announced that it was already in talks with Thai Pettep, “the natural operator” to take the rest of Totalnergies in Burma.
One year after the coup of the 1 February 2021, who overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi and put an end to a ten-year democratic parenthesis, Burma remains immersed in chaos. Antijun militia took up arms against the generals who smother in the blood the protest, with nearly 1,500 civilians killed, according to a local human rights defense association.
Thursday, the NGO Human Rights Watch had again called the United States and the European Union to “impose necessary measures to target the funds that finance the abusive regime of the junta” after receiving a letter from the President -Director General of Totalnergies, Patrick Pouyanné, supporting “the implementation of targeted sanctions”.
The French group had previously ended the development project of a new deposit, stopped its drilling campaigns and suspended payments to the shareholders of a pipeline, including a company controlled by the Burmese army.