Burma
Since the early 1990s, Chevron (formerly Unocal), in a consortium with Total (France) and PTT Exploration and Production (Thailand) has partnered with the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) on the Yadana natural gas project. The project transports natural gas from the Andaman Sea in Burma through an overland pipeline across the country's Tenasserim region to Thailand, where it generates electricity for the Bangkok metropolitan area. The project is operated by Total and has generated over US$7 billion since payments began in 1998.
Despite being a mere 40 kilometers (60 miles) long and located in a remote corner of southern Burma (Myanmar), the Yadana project is one of the world's most controversial resource development projects and is widely recognized as a textbook example of corporate complicity in human rights abuses. The conditions in the pipeline region have been a focus of global divestment campaigns, landmark lawsuits in United States courts, out-of-court settlements with victims of human rights abuses, and shareholder resolutions.
In the early years of the project the regime created a highly militarized pipeline corridor in what had previously been a relatively peaceful area inhabited by mostly Karen, Mon and Tavoyan people. The results were violent suppression of dissent, environmental destruction, forced labor and portering, forced relocations, torture, rape, and summary executions. Today, serious abuses continue to be documented at length, and Chevron continues to deny responsibility for violations committed by the Burma army providing security for the project.
More information on Chevron in Burma can be found in the Alternative Annual Report
