The French TotalEnergies announced that it had finally withdrawn from the natural gas project in Myanmar and ceased business in the country.

This came after a 6-month notice period for leaving under European sanctions that came into effect in February 2022 in connection with the military coup in Myanmar.

The new operator of the Yadana gas field in Myanmar is the Thai national oil exploration and production company PTT, which has been actively cooperating with TotalEnergies on the project.

In addition, TotalEnergies and PTT have entered into a new financial support agreement that will be provided as a contribution to the Community Economic Development Program trust fund in the MGTC pipeline area.

TotalEnergies announced on January 21, 2022 that it will curtail all current projects in the country except for gas production at the Yadana field, from where the fuel is exported to Thailand. At the same time, TotalEnergies tried to limit the financial flows that Myanmar’s state oil company MOGE receives from the project.

„Despite the measures taken, TotalEnergies has not been able to meet the expectations of many stakeholders (including shareholders, as well as international and Burmese civil society organizations) who call for preventing the Burmese authorities from receiving mining revenues from the Yadana field through the state-owned MOGE,” the press release said. release.

The company was unable to find ways to limit Myanmar government funding without halting production, and „decided to begin the contractual process to withdraw from the Yadana field and the MGTC gas pipeline, both as a shareholder and as an operator, without receiving financial compensation,” the statement said.

The French company has been a participant and operator of the Yadana gas field since 1992 with a 31.24% share. Other participants are Unocal-Chevron (28.26%), the local „daughter” of the Thai PTT (25.5%) and the state company MOGE (15%). Production at the field is about 6 billion cubic meters of gas per year, 70% of this volume is exported to Thailand via the MGTC gas pipeline, which is owned by Yadana shareholders in the same shares, and 30% is sent to the domestic market of Myanmar.