Myanmar junta says Russia to step up as major energy supplier after more international oil, gas firms quit
- The two countries look set to establish a joint pipeline through India or China to supply Russian energy
- Malaysia’s Petronas, Thailand’s PTTEP to join Chevron, TotalEnergies in leaving oil and gas sector that accounts for about half of Myanmar’s foreign currency
Russia is shaping up to be a major energy supplier for Myanmar amid an exodus by international players from the country’s oil and gas sector, one of the junta’s biggest sources of foreign revenue.
Last month, Malaysian state-owned firm Petronas and Thailand’s PTTEP said they would stop operations in Myanmar’s US$700 million Yetagun gas field, located south of the country in the Andaman Sea. Petronas has a 41 per cent stake in the 24,130 square kilometre gas field, while PTTEP owns 19.3 per cent.
Their exit came several months after Chevron and TotalEnergies withdrew from the Yadana gas project, another important source of revenue for the military, which seized power in a coup in February 2021. The French firms cited the worsening human rights situation in Myanmar as the reason for their departures.
In response to the emerging power crisis, the Myanmar military invited an official from Tatarstan, a semi-autonomous region of 3.7 million population in the Russian Federation, to discuss the situation early last month.
Around the same time, two junta-appointed ministers, Maung Maung Ohn and Aung Naing Oo, held an online press conference with foreign media outlets to invite China to join the construction of hydropower dams, The Irrawaddy reported.
