The pipeline to riches

The international community may finally have the information it needs to effectively prod the intransigent Burmese military regime to change its repressive ways – the specific offshore location of the regime’s illicit multi-billion dollar natural gas revenues has been revealed.

According to our 110-page report released last week by the environmental and human rights organisation EarthRights International (ERI), entitled “Total Impact: The Human Rights, Environmental, and Financial Impacts of Total and Chevron’s Yadana Natural Gas Project in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar)”, the oil giants Total and Chevron have generated US$4.83 billion (164 billion baht) in profits for the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) since the companies’ Yadana gas pipeline to Thailand started commercial production in 2000.

Comprising a significant part of the regime’s income, this is money from the people’s natural resources and before last Thursday its location was a mystery, like much else at the upper echelons of Burma’s reclusive junta.

Citing “confidential and reliable” sources, ERI named the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) and DBS Group (DBS) as the offshore repositories of these ill-gotten gains. OCBC is Singapore’s longest established local bank and according to ERI holds the majority of the revenue, while DBS is Singapore’s largest bank in terms of assets

Bangkok Post