Oil giant Total's presence in Myanmar is "positive": CEO

Sep 11, 2009, 12:12 GMT

Paris - The head of French oil giant Total defended his company against charges it was supporting the junta in Myanmar, claiming instead that the firm's presence in the country was 'positive.'

'I believe... that what we do (in Myanmar) is positive for a part of the population,' Christophe de Margerie said in an interview published Friday in the daily Le Parisien.

'The fatal argument is to say that the money from the gas profits the junta,' he added. 'But if the gas is not produced by Total, it would be produced by others, and that would change nothing regarding the revenues for the junta.'

Margerie was responding to a report published Thursday by the human rights group EarthRights International (ERI) alleging that Myanmar's ruling junta is hiding billions of dollars in revenue in natural gas sales from the Yadana gas pipeline, which was built by Total and the American oil firm Chevron.

'Total's mission is not to restore democracy in the world. That is not our profession,' Margerie said in the interview with readers of the daily. He also said that Total had no plans to leave Myanmar.

But ERI did not call on Total and Chevron to divest from Myanmar, but to publish all their payments to the country's authorities since 1992, when the contract was signed.

Margerie did not respond to that demand. Nor did he address another demand by ERI, to acknowledge that forced labour was used with the pipeline, which passes from the Andaman Sea over 65 kilometers of Myanmar into Thailand.

He claimed, however, that Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi prefers to work with Total rather than other oil companies.

'She never demanded that we leave (Myanmar),' he said.