Australia’s Woodside Energy is reducing its presence in Myanmar and expects to fully demobilise its offshore exploration drilling team over the coming weeks following reports of human rights violations in the Southeast Asian nation.
Human rights groups and industry executives have slammed Woodside Energy’s rationale to proceed with a major gas development and exploration campaign in Myanmar following a military coup and subsequent bloody protests.
Transparency campaigners in Myanmar have appealed to foreign upstream producers to stop paying revenue to the military-led government which seized power in coup on 1 February.
Myanmar’s transition towards renewable energy sources will face near-term headwinds after the recent military coup. However, analysts are more optimistic over the medium to longer term given the dominance of Chinese companies in the sector.
There is a high risk that political turmoil in Myanmar will negatively affect the energy sector, however, Chinese companies look set to benefit from the tumultuous environment, according to Fitch Solutions Country Risk & Industry Research.
Malaysian national oil company (NOC) Petronas said that it is making every effort to ensure the safety of about 155 workers that are sub-contracted on a barge servicing its Yetagun platform in the Andaman Sea off Myanmar following the military coup.
The bloodless military coup in Myanmar has triggered some upstream companies to assess whether they should activate force majeure clauses in their production-sharing contracts (PSCs) with the government.
The atmosphere in Myanmar remains volatile after the military seized power from the National League for Democracy (NLD) government and is creating logistical challenges for upstream companies, including Woodside Energy, that operate in the country.
Myanmar faces a potential energy crunch following a bloodless military coup that is set to delay urgent upstream investment and derail vital liquefied natural gas (LNG) import projects.
Oil is flowing unhindered through Turkey’s pipelines and waterways, one of the world’s largest energy trading corridors, after a coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed.