Firms Seek Access to Burma Oil Fields Despite Bloody Crackdown

Firms Seek Access to Burma Oil Fields Despite Bloody Crackdown

By Thomas Hogue/AP Writer/Bangkok

September 29, 2007—Just last Sunday—when marches led by Buddhist monks drew thousands in Burma's biggest cities—Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora was in the country's capital for the signing of oil and gas exploration contracts between state-controlled ONGC Videsh Ltd and Burma's military rulers.

The signing ceremony was an example of how important Burma's oil and gas resources have become in an energy-hungry world. Even as Burma's military junta intensifies its crackdown on pro-democracy protests, oil companies are jostling for access to the country's largely untapped natural gas and oil fields that activists say are funding a repressive regime.

China—Burma's staunchest diplomatic protector and largest trading partner—is particularly keen on investing in the country because of its strategic location for pipelines to feed the Chinese economy's growing thirst for oil and gas.

Companies from South Korea, Thailand and elsewhere also are looking to exploit the energy resources of the desperately poor Southeast Asian country.

France's Total SA and Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, currently pump gas from fields off Burma's coast through a pipeline to Thailand, which takes 90 percent of Burma's gas output, according to Thailand's PTT Exploration & Production PLC.

But investing in Burma has brought accusations that petroleum corporations offer economic support to the country's repressive junta, and in some cases are complicit in human rights abuses. This week's bloody clampdowns on protests have escalated the activists' calls for energy companies to pull out of the country.

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A military dictatorship is their favorite kind of government.