Total and Chevron: Most Wanted Corporate Human Rights Violators of 2007 in Burma

B.O.A News:
Burma Operations-French and US based oil and gas companies, Total and Chevron have been listed as the “Most-wanted corporate human rights violators of 2007(Burma)” by Washington-based Hunman Rights organization- Justice for Human Rights in Burma (J.H.B).

“Despite the settlement, human rights abuses continue along the oil pipeline in Burma , which is still ‘secured’ by the Burmese military. Chevron and Total are responsible for the risks associated with this pipeline,” the J.H.B announcement said.The announcement was released on International Human Rights Day- December 10, 2007.

In the announcement , Total and Chevron are implicated in crimes against humanity originating from activities regarding the Yadana natural gas pipeline project in Burma. These crimes include the use of forced labor, relocations and environmental abuses in connection with this project.

The Yadana gas field is located in the Andaman Sea, approximately 60 kilometers offshore the nearest landfall in Burma.

This major energy resource contains more than 5,3 trillion cubic feet (150 billion cubic meters) of natural gas, with an expected field life of 30 years. Output from the field averaged over 19.3 million cubic meters per day in 2006.

The field was developed under a conventional production sharing contract by four investors:

Total, operator, 31.2375%
a subsidiary of Unocal (today, Chevron Corp. further to its acquisition of UNOCAL in 2005) of the United States, 28.2625%
Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration & Production (PTT-EP), 25.5%
state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), 15%.

Gas from the Yadana and Yetagun pipelines in the east of the country is currently Burma's largest source of legal export revenue.Fifty percent of Burma's export income is derived from Gas, with a majority of those revenues funding military expenditures, and virtually none supporting social development.

Human rights activists in the United States and abroad increasingly are calling upon the world's major oil companies to leave gas-rich nation where tales of torture and disappearances flow as freely as gas itself.