A Response to the French Oil Company Total Regarding Its Yadana Natural Gas Pipeline in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar)
On September 10, 2009 EarthRights International (ERI) published almost 200 pages of new research in two publications linking the oil giants Total S.A., Chevron Corporation, the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production Company Ltd. (PTTEP), and the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) to forced labor, killings, high-level corruption, and authoritarianism in connection to their Yadana natural gas pipeline in military-ruled Burma. The reports also document the flawed corporate social responsibility programs implemented by Total, the operator of the project, and reveal for the first time that the pipeline in Burma has generated more than US$7 billion dollars for the companies and the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
On October 15, 2009 Total publicly released a 12-page response to ERI.
This publication, Total Impact 2.0, is a detailed and fact-based rejoinder to Total’s response to ERI. It finds that while the company may be softening to criticism and to the idea of engagement with a nongovernmental organization (NGO) such as ERI, it has yet again misled the general public, investors and policymakers regarding the impacts of their pipeline project in Burma. This report finds that the companies are still linked to violent abuses such as forced labor and killings in their project area, and that their project has generated multi-billion dollar revenues for the Burmese military regime.
