It’s the end of a three-decade adventure that has caused a lot of ink to flow. After beginning its exploration operations in the Yadana gas field off Burma in 1992, TotalEnergies (ex-Total) finally announced its withdrawal from the country on Friday morning January 21, citing a “Context that continues to deteriorate in terms of human rights”. The departure will be “effective no later than the end” six months’ notice. Almost a year after the coup by the military junta, on 1er February 2021, the American company Chevron also announced that it was leaving the country.
During these eleven months, negotiations between Washington, Paris, several human rights NGOs and oil companies led TotalEnergies to a spectacular turnaround. In the aftermath of the Burmese coup, the French group had no intention of leaving the country, quite the contrary. On April 3, 2021, The Sunday newspaper publishes a column by Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and CEO of the oil major, whose title leaves little room for doubt: “Why Total is staying in Burma”.
Total’s position quickly becomes untenable
Few weeks later, The world reveals a financial package around MGTC, the company that owns the 346 kilometer submarine gas pipeline, registered in Bermuda and of which Total is the leading shareholder (31%) and operator. Under this system, millions of dollars from gas sales were diverted from the coffers of the Burmese state for the benefit of MOGE, a company controlled by the military and a shareholder in the same gas field (15% of the shares). The French group announced shortly after, at the end of May 2021, that it was suspending the payment of dividends, including those to the Burmese junta.
Over the months, the situation deteriorated in Myanmar (the other name of the country) and the position of the French group quickly became untenable. NGOs count nearly 1,000 civilians killed by the army in barely half a year. Aung San Suu Kyi, the former leader who had opposed the military coup, was sentenced the following fall to four years in prison, a sentence finally reduced to two years.
During a conference given at the end of August 2021, in front of the Medef, Patrick Pouyanné does not hide the difficult situation in which he finds himself. “Myanmar is nothing at all given the trouble I have in front of me, sorry for the word, it’s 1% of Total’s production and nothing in result”, he blurts out before concluding that none of the solutions is “really good”.
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