UK minister says ‘inappropriate to speculate’ on possible sanctions for Myanmar military-controlled oil and gas firm MOGE

Responding to a recent written question in the United Kingdom’s House of Lords concerning whether the country would follow the European Union and the United States and sanction Myanmar’s state-owned energy firm, Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), the UK’s Minister of State, Lord Tariq Ahmad, declined to answer. “[I]t would be inappropriate to speculate about future sanctions designations as to do so could reduce their impact,” Lord Ahmad claimed in his response to Lord David Alton, the also unelected lifetime peer who had asked the question on February 22. “We keep all evidence and potential designations under close review,” Lord Ahmad added. Firms in the EU and the US have been restricted by recent sanctions from doing business with MOGE, which was seized by Myanmar’s junta after the 2021 coup. Yet UK firms and those registered in British Overseas Territories remain able to engage with the entity, considered to be one of the largest revenue sources for Min Aung Hlaing’s military council. While the British government recently sanctioned Myanmar’s state-owned mining entities, the country’s failure to sanction MOGE has left the door open for Canadian firm MTI Energy, whose Bermuda-registered subsidiary Et Martem Holdings is in the process of buying the largest stake in the Yadana pipeline project from US oil giant Chevron. Like the UK, Canada has also failed thus far to sanction MOGE, paving the way for the Edmonton, Alberta-based MTI Energy to complete the acquisition of Chevron’s 41 percent stake in the Yadana offshore gas and pipeline project. Despite repeated calls from groups like Justice for Myanmar and Burma Campaign UK, the British government has so far declined to sanction MOGE, leaving the firm free to use British banks to manage the hundreds of millions of dollars MOGE earns in revenue every year from the sale of offshore gas. In its latest annual filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission released on Monday, Chevron noted that it still had a 41.1 percent stake in a Myanmar production sharing contract for the production of natural gas from the Yadana, Badamyar and Sein fields in the Andaman Sea. The firm also noted its 41.1 percent stake in a pipeline company that sends natural gas across the Myanmar-Thai border for use in Thai power plants. Chevron claimed that with regards to Myanmar it “plans to exit the country in 2024.” While the company noted in the filing that it had signed an agreement to “sell the company’s interest in all Myanmar assets,” it did not provide an update about the deal with MTI Energy’s Bermuda subsidiary Et Martem Holdings.

UK minister says ‘inappropriate to speculate’ on possible sanctions for Myanmar military-controlled oil and gas firm MOGE

While the EU and US have sanctioned MOGE, UK companies and those in British Overseas Territories can do business with the entity, which provides major revenue to the Myanmar junta

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