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21/01/2022

France's TotalEnergies To Quit Its Business In Myanmar Over Human Rights Issues




France's TotalEnergies To Quit Its Business In Myanmar Over Human Rights Issues
TotalEnergies, a French energy business, announced on Friday that it has chosen to quit Myanmar due to the country's deteriorating human rights situation, making it the latest Western company to leave since a military coup took over the country last year.
 
Myanmar security forces have killed over 1,400 people and imprisoned hundreds since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a local non-governmental organization. The figures are disputed by the Junta.
 
"The situation, in terms of human rights and more generally the rule of law, which has kept worsening in Myanmar since the coup of February 2021, has led us to reassess the situation and no longer allows TotalEnergies to make a sufficiently positive contribution in the country," the company said in a statement.
 
"As a result, TotalEnergies has decided to initiate the contractual process of withdrawing from the Yadana field and from MGTC in Myanmar, both as operator and as a shareholder, without any financial compensation for TotalEnergies."
 
The junta seized power after the civilian administration led by Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory in a November 2020 election.
 
The vote had no notable anomalies, according to international and local monitoring organizations.
 
Total Energies did not provide a quantitative estimate of the financial impact to the company of its decision to withdraw from Myanmar but stated that the country accounted for a small portion of its revenue.
 
"Financial considerations have never been crucial in this matter. Our operations in Myanmar amounted to $105 million in 2021, equivalent to less than 1% of the company's income," said a TotalEnergies spokesperson.
 
The company has also said that its partners in Myanmar have been informed of the company’s decision to quit the country and the company is implementing its decision as soon as a 6-month contractual period comes to an end.
 
According to past deals and agreements, the total business interests of the company will be equally shared between the current partners, unless there is any objection to such a sharing by any of the partners, and one of the partners will take over the role of the operators, the French company said.
 
(Source:www.nationalpost.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell

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