Chinese and Korean Gas and Oil Projects Linked to Land Confiscations, Violations of Indigenous Rights, Torture, and Corruption in Burma (Myanmar)

Leading multinational companies from China, South Korea, and India have begun construction of massive oil and gas pipelines across Burma that are connected to widespread land confiscation, violations of indigenous rights, cases of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture, and forced labor, according to a new publication released today by EarthRights International (ERI). ERI is calling on the oil companies involved in the pipelines to immediately postpone their operations, and for the Burmese authorities to enact a moratorium on development in the oil, gas, mining, and hydropower sectors until preconditions for responsible investment are in place and the people of Burma can meaningfully participate in development decisions […]

The Burma-China Pipelines: Human Rights Violations, Applicable Law, and Revenue Secrecy

EarthRights International (ERI) today issued a damning report linking major Chinese and Korean companies to widespread land confiscation, and cases of forced labor, arbitrary arrest, detention and torture, and violations of indigenous rights connected to the Shwe natural gas project and oil transport projects in Burma (Myanmar). The publication, The Burma-China Pipelines: Human Rights Violations, Applicable Law, and Revenue Secrecy, draws primarily on two years of clandestine interviews with affected populations from Arakan State, Magway Division, and Mandalay Division, as well as leaked documents that provide new insight into secretive payments between the oil companies and the military regime, controversial security arrangements, and inadequate corporate due diligence […]

Extractive Industry Transparency Now United States Law

By Paul Donowitz, Campaign Director

Today, President Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed last week by the U.S. Senate that includes a landmark provision requiring disclosure of payments from oil and mining companies to governments around the world. For the first time, communities who live in resource-rich countries will know how much their governments receive annually, and on a project-by-project basis for the extraction of natural resources […]

Energy Giants ‘Fund Burma’s Nuclear Drive’

Burma’s military rulers are using gas revenue from US and French energy giants Chevron and Total to fund an illegal bid to build nuclear weapons, human rights monitors said in a report on Monday.

Burma’s Yadana gas pipeline, run by the two companies along with Thai firm PTTEP, made billions of dollars for the military leaders, the Paris-based group EarthRights International said, citing data from the firms […]

Energy Insecurity: How Total, Chevron, and PTTEP Contribute to Human Rights Violations, Financial Secrecy, and Nuclear Proliferation in Burma

EarthRights International released an explosive new report that describes how the oil companies Total (France), Chevron (US), and PTTEP (Thailand) have generated over US $9 billion dollars in military-ruled Burma (Myanmar) since 1998, making their Yadana Natural Gas Project the single largest source of revenue for the country’s notoriously repressive dictatorship […]

Report: Oil Compaies Fueling Nuclear Proliferation in Burma (Myanmar), Complicit in Targeted Killings and Forced Labour

New Figures Reveal Billion Dollar Payments to World’s Newest Nuclear Threat, French, American, and Thai Companies Concealing Payments

The oil companies Total (France), Chevron (US), and PTTEP (Thailand) have generated over US $9 billion dollars in military-ruled Burma (Myanmar) since 1998, making their Yadana Natural Gas Project the single largest source of revenue for the country’s notoriously repressive dictatorship […]

What Can Gas Transparency do for Burma?

International pressure continues to mount on the oil companies Total, Chevron, and PTTEP of Thailand to practice complete revenue transparency in connection to the controversial Yadana natural gas pipeline in Burma’s Tenasserim Division. Non-governmental organizations, scholars, labour unions, investment firms, and even world leaders have urged the companies to publish over 18 years of payments to the Burmese military regime […]

News Flash: Oil Companies Sometimes Lie

As America’s environmental catastrophe continues to surface in the oil-slicked Gulf of Mexico, critics of the petroleum industry are rightfully coming out of the woodwork. Whether it’s shoddy safety records, toxic pollution, or fueling conflict and corruption, oil companies have unarguably contributed to some of the most serious and damaging corporate activities around the globe.

Yet there is another inconvenient truth to the unseemly resume of the oil giants: Oil companies sometimes lie.

In Burma (Myanmar), over the last twenty years, Chevron, Total, and the Thai company PTTEP — operators of the forced labor plagued Yadana natural gas pipeline — have made hundreds of millions, if not billions, in undisclosed payments to the ruling military junta […]

Oil Companies in Burma Urged to Open Their Books

Total, Chevron, and PTTEP Would Become First Oil Companies to Practice Revenue Transparency in Burma

In an initiative launched today, over 160 non-governmental organizations, labor unions, investment firms, scholars, and policy leaders, including the former Prime Minister of Norway and the former President of Ireland, called on the oil companies Total, Chevron, and Thailand’s PTTEP to publish over 18 years of payments to the Burmese military regime […]

A Call for Total, Chevron, and PTTEP to Practice Revenue Transparency in Burma

The oil companies Total, Chevron, and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production
(PTTEP) have an opportunity to promote transparency and accountability in the extractives sector in Burma
by becoming the first oil companies to voluntarily publish their payments to the Burmese authorities. We the
undersigned policy leaders, non-governmental organizations, unions, investment firms, and academics call
on Total, Chevron, and PTTEP to seize this opportunity and publish detailed information about their revenue
payments to the Burmese authorities since 1992 […]