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 […]

New Documentary Shows Military’s Shocking Nuclear Efforts

The military junta’s fixation on military might and issues of ‘national security’ may not be news to the people of Burma or the international community, nor would the junta’s focus on preserving and fulfilling the social and economic interests of high-ranking military and government officials at the expense of their general population.

But what has recently come to light is surprisingly conclusive evidence, based on testimonies by high-ranking defectors and photographic documentation, of the military’s attempts to develop a program that may one day produce viable nuclear weapons […]

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 […]

The UN Singles Out Big Oil in Burma, With Good Reason

By Matthew Smith, Coordinator of the Burma Project, EarthRights International

In a surprising report last month to the UN Human Rights Council, UN Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on human rights Tomás Quintana recommended an official “commission of inquiry” into possible crimes against humanity and war crimes in military-ruled Burma (Myanmar).

Although the call for such a commission was widely covered in media and policy circles, a critical section of the report went completely overlooked and unreported: Quintana actually became the first UNSR to take specific aim at the ruling State Peace and Development Council’s corporate partners, singling out problematic foreign oil companies operating in the country […]

Total Impact: The Human Rights, Environmental, and Financial Impacts of Total and Chevron’s Yadana Gas Project in Military-Ruled Burma

The report explains that Total and Chevron’s Yadana gas project has generated US$4.83 billion dollars for Burma’s military regime, and how the regime excluded the majority of that revenue from the country’s national budget. Download the report in English. Download the summary and recommendations in Burmese or French.

Getting it Wrong: Flawed ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ and Misrepresentations Surrounding Total and Chevron’s Yadana Gas Pipeline in Military-Ruled Burma

Based on seven years of research, this report describes Total and Chevron’s public relations endeavors, including impact assessments commissioned by the companies since 2002. ERI presents evidence proving that Total lied to the public when it claimed that the International Labour Organization certified that the company eradicated forced labor in its project area. The report […]

Laid Waste: Human Rights along the Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay Gas Pipeline

A 100-page report that details abuses along the entire length of an overland pipeline that traverses nearly half the length of Burma’s southern peninsula. Laid Waste also details abuses committed by Burma’s military regime as it has sought to construct, maintain and protect the Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay gas pipeline.