Japanese energy conglomerate Eneos Holdings Inc yesterday said that it withdrawing from a gas project in coup-hit Myanmar, days after its Thai and Malaysian partners announced they would pull out.
Eneos is the latest energy giant to retreat from the Southeast Asian country, whose military has waged a widespread crackdown on dissent since it ousted and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi last year.
The company is involved in the Yetagun project off southern Myanmar along with the Japanese government and Mitsubishi Corp.
Photo: Bloomberg
Together they hold a 19.3 percent stake in the gas fields, which has been operational for two decades.
Eneos “decided to withdraw after discussions taking into consideration the country’s current situation, including the social issues and project economics based on the technical evaluation of Yetagun gas fields,” it said in a statement.
“This withdrawal will be effective after approval from the Myanmar government,” it added.
An official at the Japanese Agency for Natural Resources and Energy said that the government “takes the same position” as Eneos, adding that the Yetagun project has experienced a reduction in output over the past decade.
Malaysia’s Petronas and Thailand’s oil and gas conglomerate PTTEP announced their withdrawal on Friday. Petronas subsidiary Carigali holds an approximate 41 percent stake in the Yetagun project, while PTTEP owns 19.3 percent.
More than 1,800 civilians have died in Myanmar during the military crackdown and more than 13,000 have been arrested, a local monitoring group said.
With the economy tanking and pressure mounting from rights groups, companies including France’s TotalEnergies, British American Tobacco PLC and Norway’s Telenor Group have left the country.
Tokyo is a major provider of economic assistance to Myanmar, and the government has longstanding relations with the country’s military.
After the coup, Japan announced it would halt all new aid, although it stopped short of imposing individual sanctions on military and police commanders.
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