Chevron is selling its stake in Myanmar’s Yadana gas field offshore to a good neighbour Canada’s MTI Energy despite calls for justice groups to sanction state-owned Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE).
The majority of shareholding in Yadana project was originally held by French supermajor TotalEnergies who pulled out last year and elected not to seek payment for its stake, bringing Chevron’s shareholding equity from 28.26% to 41.1%. Other shareholders are Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (SET: PTTEP), a subsidiary of Thailand’s state-owned energy enterprise PTT, and a national oil and gas company Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE).
However, the American company, who refused to pull out earlier when national governments called for sanctions on the military-junta government, decided to sell its 41.1% stake to a Canadian company.
A Chevron spokesperson told an oil and gas media ‘upstreamonline’ that the terms of the agreement are confidential and the value of the deal is being kept under wraps.
According to the human rights group Justice for Myanmar, MTI Energy is purchasing Chevron’s stake through its Bermuda subsidiary, Et Martem Holdings. Bermuda is a tax haven and secrecy jurisdiction.
As a UK overseas territory, Bermuda has implemented UK sanctions on Myanmar under the territory’s International Sanctions Regulations 2013, the group calls for Canada and UK government sanctions on MOGE.
Late last year, the central bank of Norway put more pressure on countries that were investing in Myanmar and announced that it will cease to include the Thai oil and gas company PTT Public Company Limited (SET: PTT) and its subsidiary PTT Oil and Retail Business Public Company Limited (SET: OR) from investment by the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global due to their relation with the military-led government in Myanmar.
PTT published a statement that the company’s business operations, both PTT’s own operations and investments through subsidiaries, have complied with sustainability practices which includes the environmental dimension, the social dimension, and the governance dimension by integrating human rights principles throughout the company’s supply chain from comprehensive examination, managing, promoting, protecting, and respecting human rights to comply with international practices stringently.
Meanwhile, OR noted that the operation and construction has long been suspended since the coup.
