U.S. supermajor Chevron has quit operations in Myanmar by transferring its stake in a natural gas field and an associated pipeline to its former partners in the ventures, after pledging to leave the Southeast Asian country following a military coup in 2021.
“The withdrawal gives effect to our intention to exit Myanmar in a controlled and orderly manner, following the February 2021 coup, and ongoing humanitarian crisis,” a spokesperson for Chevron has told Reuters.
Chevron pledged in 2022 to exit Myanmar. In February 2023, the U.S. oil and gas giant said it had agreed to sell its assets there. The international community has imposed sanctions on Myanmar and the junta currently in power.
But now Chevron has handed over its stake in the Yadana gas field to the remaining shareholders, Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) and state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE).
As of 2021, Chevron’s affiliate, Unocal Myanmar Offshore Co. Ltd. (UMOCL), had a 28.3% ownership interest in a production sharing contract (PSC) for the production of natural gas from the Yadana, Badamyar, and Sein fields, within Blocks M5 and M6, in the Andaman Sea. Chevron’s unit also had a 28.3% ownership interest in the export gas pipeline company, known as
Moattama Gas Transportation Company (MGTC).
French supermajor TotalEnergies also had a stake in these fields and definitively withdrew in July 2022 from the Yadana field and from gas transportation company MGTC in Myanmar, both as shareholder and as operator.
“In a context of continuing deterioration of the human rights situation in Myanmar, this decision resulted from the assessment that TotalEnergies was no longer able to make a sufficiently positive contribution in the country, and was not able to meet the expectations of stakeholders who were asking to stop the revenues going to the Burmese state through the state-owned company MOGE from the Yadana field production,” the French company said at the time.
Chevron said this week it had conducted its “exit from Myanmar in a responsible, orderly and safe manner, in accordance with international law and trade sanctions.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
Lead image (Credit: Reuters)
