Yangon – TotalEnergies and Chevron Corporation have decided to exit from Myanmar, the two companies worked as a partner in Myanmar gas project said on Friday, after months of concerted efforts of targeted advocacy by rights groups and the National Unity Government (NUG).
Reason of their withdrawal is cited as the worsening political climate, including deteriorating human rights in the country.
Although the international community fails to call on what is happening in Myanmar as a civil war, the country has been plunged into a civil war. Everywhere whether cities or villages is like a battleground that is exactly the kind of what had happened in Syria and Iraq.
Innocent civilians are arbitrarily arrested, tortured, brutally killed on nearly a day basis and more than 1400 have been killed by Myanmar military junta according AAPP (Assistance Association for Political Prisoners) and thousands remain detained and subject to cruel interrogation in which dozens have been killed and their families are told to pick up their bodies.
Armed conflicts between Myanmar’s military junta and ethnic armed groups and People Defense Forces have been happening across the country, with no sight of abating the war.
“While our Company considers that its presence in a country allows it to promote its values, including outside its direct sphere of operations, the situation, in terms of human rights and more generally the rule of law, which have kept worsening in Myanmar since the coup of February 2021, has led us to reassess the situation and no longer allows TotalEnergies to make a sufficiently positive contribution in the country.”
“As a result, TotalEnergies has decided to initiate the contractual process of withdrawing from the Yadana field and from MGTC in Myanmar, both as operator and as shareholder, without any financial compensation for TotalEnergies. This withdrawal has been notified today to TotalEnergies’ partners in Yadana and MGTC and will be effective at the latest at the expiry of the 6-month contractual period. The agreements also stipulate that, in the event of withdrawal, TotalEnergies’ interests will be shared between the current partners, unless they object to such allocation, and that the role of operator will be taken over by one of the partners,” said in its statement which is released on 21 January 2022.
Locals in Yangon tell Chindwin that Denko petrol stations have informed customers there is no more oil and no longer providing petrol, and locals have to go to Max petrol stations for petrol. Still, petrol is available at Max, but locals are worried there will be complete short of petrol in the country.
