TotalEnergies SE and Chevron Corp. will withdraw from Myanmar citing worsening human rights conditions. The companies belong to joint ventures in the Yadana gas project off Myanmar’s southwestern coast and the MGTC pipeline that carries gas from Yadana field to the Burmese-Thai border.
TotalEnergies initiated the contractual process of withdrawing from Yadana and MGTC, both as operator and as shareholder, without any financial compensation. This withdrawal 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. During this notice period, TotalEnergies will continue to act as a responsible operator to ensure continuity of gas deliveries, it said.
Yadana field produces around 6 billion cu m/yr gas of which about 70% is exported to Thailand where it is sold to PTT and 30% is retained by Burmese state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) for domestic use.
TotalEnergies is operator of Yadana (Blocks M5 and M6) (31.24%). Partners include Chevron affiliate Unocal Myanmar Offshore Co. Ltd. (UMOCL) (28.26%), PTT Exploration & Production Public Co. Ltd (25.5%), and MOGE (15%). The shareholders of MGTC are the same as the partners in Yadana field and in the same proportions.
Alex Procyk | Upstream Editor
Alex Procyk is Upstream Editor at Oil & Gas Journal. He has also served as a principal technical professional at Halliburton and as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips. He holds a BS in chemistry (1987) from Kent State University and a PhD in chemistry (1992) from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
