MOGE

International sanctions on MOGE increasingly likely, says legal expert 

Five months after the military seized power in Myanmar, hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues from natural gas projects still flow to the military regime. Calls are growing for foreign governments, notably the United States, to impose sanctions that could prevent the regime from controlling revenue from gas production. Today, most gas revenues flow into accounts held outside Myanmar by state-owned banks which, like all other public institutions, are now in the hands of the military. In effect, the gas revenues go into a black hole controlled by the generals. If sanctions were imposed on gas revenues, the effect on the regime’s finances would be significant. Myanmar was expected to earn 2,305 billion kyat (about US$1.5 billion) from oil and gas in 2020/21, according to an official forecast from before the coup.  This would be about 10 per cent of the government’s forecast revenues. The gas revenue is a vital source of hard currency which the regime needs to pay for imports from abroad. To be effective, sanctions would need to override a complex set of financial and legal arrangements between Myanmar, foreign oil companies and international banks. “The foreign currency is held offshore. It never enters Myanmar,” says…