a project of

This is not the first time the generals rule Myanmar. From 1962 to 2011, Myanmar’s people lived under the dictatorship of the same military.^[8] Then and now, oil and gas companies have helped to prop up the military. To be allowed to produce fossil fuels in Myanmar, companies have to pay a share of their revenue to the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE).^[9] MOGE is a state-owned company involved in all oil and gas projects in Myanmar. According to the UN Special Rapporteur, MOGE is “the single largest source of revenue to the state”.¹⁵⁴²⁷ When the military junta attempted to take over the democratic institutions of Myanmar, it also put MOGE under its control.¹⁵⁴²⁷ Much of the gas money that fossil fuel companies pay to MOGE thus flows straight to the military junta.¹⁵⁴²⁷

International oil and gas companies have paid MOGE hundreds of millions of US dollars over the past years.¹⁵⁴²⁷ The Yadana gas project is most likely the biggest money source of them all.¹⁵⁴²⁷ The Yadana field lies in the Andaman Sea off the Myanmar coast. Two pipelines transport gas away from the field. One of them, the Yadana Gas Pipeline runs through Myanmar’s vibrant tropical rainforest to Thailand. The pipeline from the Yetagun gas field follows a similar path through the forest. In 1992, fossil fuel companies began to produce gas at the Yadana field. For nearly two decades, money flowed from TotalEnergies and its partners Chevron and PTTEP through MOGE to the junta.¹⁵⁴²⁷ Following the second coup in 2021, the generals again began profiting from Yadana's millions.¹⁵⁴²⁷

The name Yadana means treasure in Burmese, but the project has only been a treasure for the generals and foreign companies.¹⁵⁴²⁷ Right from the beginning, companies worked hand in hand with the military junta.¹⁵⁴²⁷ To make space for what was then Total and Chevron’s pipeline, the soldiers drove people out of their homes and villages and restricted the movements of those who remained.^1542715427 They forced people to carry their weapons, construction equipment and rice for days on end, often without providing food or water.¹⁵⁴²⁷ Along the pipeline corridor, they made locals build roads, military barracks, police stations and helicopter landing pads for company executives.^{154271542715427} If the people refused to work for the military, they had to pay penalty fees until they had no money left.¹⁵⁴²⁷ If they worked for the soldiers, they couldn’t work on their farms.¹⁵⁴²⁷ Often, in one way or another, they lost their homes and their livelihoods and ended up in refugee camps and deep poverty.^1542715427 Young girls and women reported being raped and tortured along the pipeline corridor.¹⁵⁴²⁷ The soldiers randomly beat, tortured, and murdered many people.¹⁵⁴²⁷ These men were part of the same military that now has a stranglehold on the country.

As more and more international companies leave Myanmar, Thai government-linked company PTTEP is ready to benefit from the situation.¹⁵⁴²⁷ The company wants to expand its gas production and develop a gas to power project.¹⁵⁴²⁷ However, this did not go unnoticed. In early 2023, Myanmar’s civilian National Unity Government sent a letter to PTTEP demanding them to stop payments to MOGE.¹⁵⁴²⁷

The oil and gas companies that have left Myanmar only began pulling out following extensive public pressure.¹⁵⁴²⁷ TotalEnergies exited the country in July 2022, one and a half years after the attempted coup.¹⁵⁴²⁷ Chevron and JX Nippon followed in 2023.^1542715427
At that point, the companies had been helping to finance the junta for 2 whole years. The companies’ late exit will not bring back the dead, and it will not protect Myanmar’s people in future. TotalEnergies in fact handed over parts of its ownership shares in the Yadana gas field to MOGE.¹⁵⁴²⁷ This way, TotalEnergies’ withdrawal could make the military junta earn even more money.¹⁵⁴²⁷ Chevron sold its stakes to MTI, a Canadian company. Together with PTTEP, MTI will now extract the Yadana gas and share its revenues with MOGE.¹⁵⁴²⁷ Other companies, including Woodside, Petronas and ENEOS also declared that they will end their operations in Myanmar.^{154271542715427} Some only left because the gas reserves in the Yetagun field are no longer economically viable.¹⁵⁴²⁷ Civil society organizations are urging the companies to exit responsibly and take appropriate steps to close the field. Only this way would the companies ensure that future revenues of the gas fields do not fill the junta’s coffers.^{15427154271542715427} PTTEP, CNPC, and Korea Gas Corporation still produce fossil fuels in Myanmar.¹⁵⁴²⁷ Every day, gas money continues to finance the military’s brutality against the people of Myanmar.