TotalEnergies said Wednesday that it has “definitively withdrawn” from Myanmar following its announcement in January that it had decided to exit the Yadana field and from gas transportation company MGTC, both as shareholder and as operator, within six months.
Malaysia’s Petronas and Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production (PTTEP) have announced they will exit the Yetagun gas project offshore Myanmar as they rationalise their upstream portfolios. Neither company denounced the military-led coup in their exit statements.
TotalEnergies, which on 21 January announced a rapid withdrawal from Myanmar because the situation in the country no longer allowed the French company to make a “sufficiently positive contribution”, said its exit will be “responsible.”
Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production (PTTEP) has confirmed it will take over operatorship of the Yadana gas field offshore Myanmar in July as TotalEnergies (LSE:TTE) walks away in a transaction with no commercial value.
Chevron is seeking to sell its share of the Yadana gas field to Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production (BKK:PTTEP) as TotalEnergies gives its operated interest away for free in what appears to be a hasty retreat from Myanmar.
Malaysia’s Petronas and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation are divesting their shares in the Yetagun gas field offshore Myanmar. The move marks the latest in a series of exits by major energy companies, including Chevron and TotalEnergies, following the military coup in February 2021.
PTT, Thailand’s state-controlled energy company, is bidding to take control of Myanmar’s Yadana gas field after TotalEnergies (LSE:TTE) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) announced they will exit the country to protest against the junta’s continued violence against civilians since the military coup.
Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production (PTTEP) (BKK:PTTEP) looks set to takeover operatorship at the Yadana gas project offshore Myanmar after TotalEnergies announced its decision to withdraw from the troubled country last week.
French energy giant TotalEnergies has said it has done everything within its power for now to limit revenues going to the military junta in Myanmar while staying within a legal framework and maintaining crucial power supplies.
Total and Chevron will suspend cash distribution by a joint venture that counts a Myanmar state-owned company as a shareholder.
Activist group Justice For Myanmar, which documents military-linked financial matters in the country, has accused French major Total of making excessive profits at Myanmar’s expense.
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.