“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.”