WHEREAS:
Chevron, in partnership with Total, PTT, and Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), holds equity in one of the largest investment projects in Myanmar (Burma): the Yadana gas field and pipeline that has generated billions of dollars for the Myanmar military junta. Together, Total and Chevron have a majority controlling interest in Yadana project.
In Myanmar, foreign participation in the energy sector takes place through joint ventures with the MOGE, which is a department of the Myanmar government. Since it seized power in the February l5t, 2021, coup d'etat, the Myanmar military now holds total control over MOGE.
The European Union has imposed sanctions on MOGE and a bipartisan group of senators has urged the US administration to adopt similar sanctions.
The Myanmar military has a long history of egregious human rights abuses, particularly against ethnic minorities. In August 2017, a military crackdown caused an estimated more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh where they remain to this day. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has reported that the Rohingya remain “at grave risk of additional mass atrocities and even genocide.”
Nicholas Koumjian, head of the United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, stated in November 2021, that preliminary evidence collected since the military coup shows a widespread and systematic attack on civilians “amounting to crimes against humanity.”
The National Unity Government of Myanmar, made up of elected officials and civil society leaders, has called on the oil companies operating in Myanmar to withhold from the military junta and place in escrow any payments due to the Myanmar government.
Since the February 2021 coup, the “Blood Money Campaign” has organized protests and boycotts against companies that provide financial support to the ruling junta. Oil workers in Myanmar have petitioned oil companies to suspend payments to the junta.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Chevron has supplied aviation fuel to Myanmar. The Myanmar military uses aviation fuel in air strikes that have been characterized as “war crimes.”
Chevron and its partner TotalEnergies announced in January 2022 that they would withdraw from Myanmar. Chevron has yet to implement its withdrawal.
The International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect (ICRtoP) monitors countries worldwide for instances of serious crimes under international law including genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. ICRtoP lists several countries, cited by the United Nations and civil society organizations, in which Chevron is currently producing oil and gas: Burma (Myanmar), Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria.