The

Bulletin
Volume 3, Issue 11 December 2010

Largest “There should be transparency and accountability

Investment: to make sure that, whatever deals there are, that they
are to be to the profit, the benefit of the people,”
Dawei Project Aung San Suu Kyi stressed after her release
Starts regarding foreign investment in Burma

Construction
in 2011
Nov 18, 2010 (SGB)

Thailand’s largest construction

company, Italian-Thai Development
will start construction of the Dawei
Development project in Burma in
January next year, according to media
reports.
Construction of an eight-lane highway,
part of the project linking the Dawei
port to central Thailand’s city
Kanchanaburi is already underway.
Italian-Thai Development won a
contract from the Burmese
government in 2008 to survey and
build a road linking Dawei to
Kanchanaburi.
The second phase of the Dawei
Development project will include the
construction of a seaport, which will Burma’s pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu
be able to handle up to 25 vessels of Kyi was released from her house arrest on Nov 13, 2010. Military
20.000 to 50.000 tonnes at a time.
controlled elections were held for the first time in two decades on Nov
Other sources say the port will be
capable of handling vessels as large 7th and the fully backed Union Solidarity and Development Party claimed
as 300,000 tonnes. The port will over 75% seat victory in the elections. NLD boyccoted the elections and
was condemned by the opposition movement and many countries around
Continue to page 7- the world.

Published by the Arakan Oil Watch, a core member of the Shwe Gas Movement
The Shwe Gas Bulletin
Thailand’s Dawei Investment Project: Protection of
Human Rights and Environment Needed
On November 2nd Thailand signed a contract worth
US$ 8 billion the with Burmese military regime for the
Dawei Development Project, making history as the
largest investment in Burma, a nation run by a group of
military leaders infamous as state terrorists for killing
and torturing its civilians and activists including monks
who peacefully marched in 2007 for the freedom and
democracy.
Many people in Thailand believe that the project will
benefit both Thailand and Burma. The Dawei Port
Project will start construction in January 2011, which
will help Thailand to avoid the Strait of Malacca-known
for its piracy- for its energy import and will save
shipping time. By shifting Thailand’s long awaited
environmentally concerned industrial zone to Dawei,
Thailand will benefit from cheap labor cost and will
avoid environmental damages into Thai air and soil from
heavy industries and the proposed chemical complex.
For Burma, the project could provide jobs for thousands
of Burmese but one of the world’s most corrupt military
regimes will be the one who will benefit the most from
this multi billion project. According to the International
Herald Tribune, the project includes a profit-sharing
agreement with the Burmese military regime, but detailed
information has not been disclosed.
Revenue flowing to the regime could mean military
power expansion to buy more military weapons and
equipment. Revenue will be used for Burma’s military
leader Than Shwe’s nuclear weapons development
rather than for the development of the country.
Burma’s desperate military regime is willing to sacrifice
Burma’s clean air and soil just for the hot money and
Thai companies rather harm peoples’ livelihoods and
the environment in Burma rather than creating jobs
because of the lacking human rights and environmental
protection laws in Burma.
Due to the opposition from local residents about the
environmental concerns, the expansion of the industrial
complex at Map Ta Phut, Thailands largest
petrochemical facility in the south is no longer possible.
Seventy-six projects on the estate remain closed, after
a court ruling regarding residents’ complaints about
leukemia and cancer rates in the area.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva recently publicly
stressed “Some industries are not suitable to be located
in Thailand.” Explaining the project to viewers of his
weekly television address he said: “This is why they
decided to set up there,” referring to Dawei.
Page 2 Published by the Arakan Oil Watch, a core member of the Shwe Gas Movement
For the development of projects in Thailand, companies
are required to do an environmental impact assessment
and conduct a public hearing. In Burma, however,
human rights abuses and environmental damages are
common in the areas of so called developments projects
as companies implement the projects without conducting
Human Right Impact Assessments (HIA), Environment
Impact Assessments (EIA) and Social Impact Assessments
(SIA).Foreign companies fail to take their responsibility
to practice internationals standards for the protection
of community rights and the environment.
Local people are never consulted or informed regarding
projects by the companies or the Burmese military
regime. Even though one of the largest industrial estates
in Dawei is currently being built, local residents are
not informed nor consulted about the project. Many
people in the project area are still unaware of the risks
of the project to their livelihoods and the environment
from the heavy industry estate that could ruin their lives.
In Burma it is impossible for local people, who are
already living in fear under oppressive military rule, to
complain to either the Government or foreign companies
about relocation or confiscation of land with or without
compensation.
As has been learned from past cases in several
development projects in Burma, local authorities have
forced villages to sign a written agreement for the
confiscation of their land or relocation. If a person
complains or refuses to sign the agreement, he or she
will be threatened to be arrested immediately, put in jail
or tortured.
As Thailand is investing in Burma’s numerous
development projects such as oil and gas exploration,
gas pipelines and hydropower dams, Thailand must
realize that it is cooperating with one of the worst human
rights abusers in the world and that Thailand is
complicit in human rights abuses and environmental
damages in Burma.
While investing in Burma, Thai companies should adhere
to international standards or at least home country
standards for the protection of community rights and
the environment. Thailand must also ensure
transparency and accountability for its payments for
gas and other investments to the Burmese military
regime. Due to the lack of protection of human rights
and the environment and transparency and
accountability, Thailand’s investments in Burma are not
more than sucking its neighbor’s blood.

Construction of China-Burma Oil and Gas Pipeline
Started at Both Sides
A railroad along with the pipeline and economic zone under plan
China has started oil and gas pipeline con-
struction in Centerl Burma since June 3, 2010.
Rights abuses cnoncerned due to the absent of
protection law and military involvement in the
project. (photo eleven media group)
Mid 2010 China started the construction of the China-
Burma oil and gas pipeline from both Burmese and
Chinese sides. CNPC, China’s largest oil firm and
parent company of PetroChina, will build and operate
the pipeline. The construction is due to finish in 2013.
The oil and gas pipelines will start from Arakan state’s
port city of Kyauk Phyu and it will enter to China’s
Yunnan’s border city of Ruili by passing through central
Burma and Shan State.
The 2,380-km long oil pipeline will end in Kunming City,
the capital of Yunnan. It is expected to carry 22 million
tonnes of crude oil per annum to China from the Middle
East and Africa.
Published by the Arakan Oil Watch, a core member of the Shwe Gas Movement
Volume 3, Issue 11
Daewoo
AOW
Constructors work at the project as the China-
Myanmar oil and gas pipelines formally started
Chinese section construction in Anning of Southwest
China’s Yunnan province, on Sept. 10, 2010.
(Xinhua/Chen Haining)
The natural gas pipeline will be even longer, running from
Kunming into Guizhou Province and the Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region in south China and will have a total
length of 2,806 km. It is expected to transport 12 billion
cubic meters of Burma’s Shwe gas to China every year.
CNPC is also building a 200,000 bpd refinery in the city
of Anning that is designed to process crude oil delivered
via Burma. It will be completed within three years.
China is planning to build an economic zone in the port
city of Kyauk Phyu and a railroad connecting Kyauk
Phyu to Ruili. The project is scheduled to finish in five
years. (Oct 2010. SGB )
Page 3
The Shwe Gas Bulletin

Suu Kyi Underlines India’s

strategic approach to
Myanmar
Reuter (Nov 24, 2010)

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmarese pro-democracy

leader who was released from seven years of continuous
house detention on Nov 13, used her first interview with
an Indian media organisation to criticise the world’s
largest democracy for its foreign policy towards the
military junta-ruled nation.
“I am saddened with India. I would like to have thought
that India would be standing behind [the pro-democracy
movement]. That it would have followed in the tradition
of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru,” Suu Kyi
told the Indian Express on Wednesday.
“I do not oppose relations with the Generals but I hope
that the Indian government would talk to us as well. I
would like to see talks begin immediately. I would like to
see close and friendly relations, like those that have not
been seen recently.”
India has developed close ties with Myanmar over the
past two decades, largely in reaction to China’s strong
presence in the country and New Delhi’s fears that large
Chinese investments in the wider region are part of a
plan to encircle India in a “string of pearls”.
Suu Kyi’s comments follow similar remarks from U.S.
President Barack Obama, who chastened India for
shying away from “violations of human rights” during his
landmark speech to parliament in New Delhi last month.
“When peaceful democratic movements are suppressed
— as in Burma — then the democracies of the world
cannot remain silent,” Obama told the assembled
lawmakers.
Having initially supported Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi’s
National League for Democracy, New Delhi shifted its
strategy in the early 1990s to court the military regime.
Since then, it has funded the development of a port on
the country’s northwestern coast, built roads and
railways there, and has supplied arms to Yangon as it
competes with Beijing for Myanmar’s oil and gas
resources. India, which shares a 1,645-km (1,000-mile)
border with Myanmar, is the country’s fourth largest
trading partner.
India has also refused to heed calls from other
international democratic nations to exert pressure on the
military regime. In 2009, India refused to support
Illustration: Ramachandra Babu/©Gulf News
International Labour Organisation criticisms of forced
labour in Myanmar, while in 2007, then-Foreign Minister
Pranab Mukherjee appeared to ignore widespread
protests and the tough military crackdown in the country
by repeating word-for-word the same speech on the
need for closer ties he had delivered earlier that year.
Human rights organisations have said India has
“mortgaged its voice on political and human rights
issues” for economic gain, while this month former
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor
wrote that “from standing up for democracy, India had
graduated to aiding and abetting the military regime.”
It is an approach that Suu Kyi, who graduated from
New Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College and lived in India
prior to her return to Myanmar in 1988, hopes to shift
away from pure economics:
“I would like India to remember that the two countries
have been through thick and thin together. We have
fought together against colonialism. It is now time to
maintain steady in that direction and encourage a
valuable friendship,” she said.
But with Chinese investment in the country soaring to
over $8 billion this fiscal year and New Delhi anxious of
its rival’s expanding influence in the Indian Ocean region,
will India risk its ties with the junta in standing up for
democracy?

Page 4 Published by the Arakan Oil Watch, a core member of the Shwe Gas Movement
 Volume 3, Issue 11

Toyota Affiliate Exits The Australian

Suzuki Venture in Greens Demand
Myanmar Burma Trade Embaro
Bloomberg (October 05, 2010)
By Makiko Kitamura
ABC news (Nov 9, 2010 )
A Toyota Motor Corp. affiliate has sold its share of a The Greens say Australia’s sanctions against Burma are
Myanmar venture, majority-owned by Suzuki Motor not tough enough and there should be a full trade embargo.
Corp., that made Toyota a target of criticism for its ties to
the country’s military junta. Violence has broken out in Burma, particularly along the
border with Thailand, in the wake of the weekend’s landmark
elections - the country’s first in 20 years, which many
Toyota Tsusho Corp. sold its stake in June in the venture, countries have described as a fraud.
which builds cars and motorcycles with Myanmar’s
government, because of the country’s poor human-rights The Greens say there is still about $50 million of trade with
record, Reuters reported earlier today. The Nagoya, Burma, particularly in oil and gas, and forestry investment
Japan-based trading company is about 22 percent owned which should be restricted.
by Toyota Motor, the world’s biggest carmaker.
Senator Scott Ludlam says Australia’s sanctions target
Burma’s ruling military regime but they are not adequate.
Katsutoshi Yokoi, a Toyota Tsusho spokesman in Tokyo,
confirmed the stake sale, declining to specify the timing, “The regime is deliberately trying to muddy the waters now,
reason, or stake size, citing an agreement with parties that a whole host of senior generals resigned and stood in
involved. their so-called elections,” he said.

“It’s going to become more difficult to determine who is

The venture, known as Myanmar Suzuki Motor, produced
12,000 vehicles in 2006, the report said, citing a researcher
at investment fund Domini Social Investments LLC. Toyota
Motor’s ties to the venture drew criticism from human-
rights groups including London-based Burma Campaign
UK, which included the carmaker and Suzuki in its “dirty
list” of companies that do business with Myanmar’s regime.
Toyota Motor halted exports to Iran in June after the U.S.
and the United Nations imposed sanctions in response to
the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear program.
Suzuki raised its stake in the Myanmar venture to 70
percent from 60 percent as early as this June, said Ei
Mochizuki, a spokesman at the Hamamatsu, Japan-based “We need a full embargo now.”
carmaker. Suzuki has no plan to exit the venture, which
began production in 1999, Mochizuki said.
actually a member of the military clique and who is not.
“The most important thing we can do now, particularly with
the upsurge of violence on the border with Thailand, is to
prevent revenues from flowing into that country.
“There is about $50 million a year of two-way trade with
Burma, and you can’t get into the oil and gas business or
the forestry business in Burma without doing a deal with
the military regime.
“I think it’s completely unacceptable in the light of the
election and the subsequent violence that Australian
investors should still be able to trade with Burma.

RESOURCES FOR THE PEOPLE

Published by the Arakan Oil Watch, a core member of the Shwe Gas Movement Page 5
The Shwe Gas Bulletin
ILO Targets Burma’s Foreign Companies
Military over Forced work in dozens of gas
Labour blocks in Myanmar
AFP (Nov 23, 2010)
ILO targets Myanmar’s military
over forced labour
GENEVA: International labour
experts warned on Sunday that Myanmar’s military is still
resorting to forced labour despite signs of progress with
civilian local authorities.
An International Labour Organisation (ILO) committee
backed calls for the release of six people who have been
imprisoned for up to 18 months after they sought the help
of the agency’s office in the country, and renewed criticism
of Myanmar’s military, ILO officials said.
“There is an indication that the use of forced labour
systematically by civilian authorities in some areas is
reducing,” Steve Marshall, liaison officer for the UN labour
agency in Myanmar, told AFP.
“The other side is there is no evidence of any change in
attitude to the use of forced labour by the military,” he
added.
The 183-nation ILO’s committee on standards has
assessed Myanmar’s record with forced labour annually
since an inquiry concluded that the practice was widespread
and systematic there.
It met on Saturday but its conclusions were only due to be
published today (Monday).
In 2007, Myanmar’s military junta bowed to pressure from
the UN labour agency and allowed an official based in the
capital, Yangon, to deal with complaints from victims.
Marshall, who took part in the meeting in Geneva, indicated
that the committee upheld his assessments and reiterated
calls for changes to parts of Myanmar’s constitution and
laws that could condone forced labour.
It also noted that official efforts in the country to raise
awareness to help prevent the practice were gaining pace.
Page 6 Published by the Arakan Oil Watch, a core member of the Shwe Gas Movement
November 18th, 2010 | Xinhua
Foreign companies are working in 42 gas exploration
blocks in Myanmar’s oil and gas fields under respective
contracts, the Biweekly Eleven News reported Thursday.
The 42 blocks include 12 in the inland and 30 in the offshore
areas. The 30 offshore blocks further include 10 deep-
sea blocks.
There are 31 inland and 5 offshore oil and gas fields in
Myanmar. AFP
Starting 1998, Myanmar has been able to export gas to
Thailand and in the next few years, the export will be
expanded to China, the biweekly said.
Oil and gas stands the sector with most foreign investment.
In 2009-10, Myanmar produced nearly 7 million barrels
of crude oil and 400 billion cubic-feet (11.32 billion cubic-
meters) of gas, according to official statistics.
Meanwhile, to boost oil and gas output from the inland
blocks, Myanmar imported four huge seep-soil drilling
machines from China for use in newly-explored
Thagyitaung, Kyaukhwet, Maubin and Pyay oil and gas
fields, the report added.
According to the geological condition, Myanmar has 14
geological valleys in the onshore regions, among which the
state- run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise has conducted
surveys in the central region, Pay and Delta regions.
It was reported that there remains many more promising
regions for exploitation of oil and gas in the country.
In the latest development, oil and natural gas are also being
exploited at new blocks such as MD-4 in the west of Dawei,
Tanintharyi division, MD-5 in the west of Palaw and MD-
6 on the west of Myeik which were found in Mottama
offshore deep sea region.
Although annual foreign investment in the oil and gas sector
stood only 278.6 million U.S. dollars in 2009-10, it was
raised sharply to 9.81 billion dollars merely in the first five
months (April-August) of 2010-11, a latest statistics show.
 Volume 3, Issue 11

Continued from page 1 -

Largest Investment: Dawei Project Starts Construction in 2011

provide a shortcut avoiding

the Strait of Malacca for
cargo between Europe and
the Middle East and Asia.
According to the contract
signed on November 2
between the Burmese
military regime and Italian-
Thai Development, the
Dawei Development
Project consists of three
phases: the construction of
a transportation corridor to
Thailand as well as roads
linking the public utilities and
facilities in the industrial
zone; the port; and the
industrial estate. The first
stage is expected to take The project envisions that the new trans-border corridors will
five years and the final two promote regional integration. Through the port and transport links,
stages are expected to take an average of 10 days will be cut from the journey of goods bound
another five years with total for Thailand, China, Vietnam and Laos as cargo will no longer be
project completion need to pass through the Strait of Malacca. Photo: Dawei
expected in 2020. Development Project handout
Italian-Thai Development
has said that the first phase
of the project will cost $8 billion with financing already Once completed, the estate will have seven zones: port
secured from an unnamed private bank. The Thai and heavy industry complex, petroleum and chemical
government is also contributing $60 million towards the complex, an upstream and downstream petrochemical
construction of the highway. The highway from the port complex, medium industry, light industry, and a town with
will lead 130 kilometers to the Thai border and then on to homes, public facilities and a commercial complex.
Kanchanaburi. A rail line will be built parallel to the new Several Thai companies are involved as sub-contractors
road, according to Asia Times online report. or have expressed interest in becoming involved in the
The report said the third phase of the project is the project. Amata Corporation has been named as the
construction of a 40,500-hectare industrial estate. The developer of the industrial estate for which, together with
original plan for the location of the industrial estate was in Italian-Thai Development, the company has carried out a
Map Ta Phut in Southern Thailand. However, the project two-year feasibility study. A subsidiary of state-owned PTT
plan did not reach agreement with the Southern residents Chemical, Thai Tank Terminal, has also expressed interested
who opposed to the project for its negative social en in operating a storage terminal near the port. Siam Cement
environmental impact. Group, Thailand’s third-largest company by market value,
“Some industries are not suitable to be located in Thailand,” is also interested in setting up a cement plant at the port.
said Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai prime minister in his weekly Bangkok Bank is reportedly interested in offering loans
television address explaining the project to its viewers. “This for the project.
is why they decided to set up there,” he said, referring to the entire project could be worth more than US$58 billion,
Dawei. making it Burma’s largest investment project ever.

Published by the Arakan Oil Watch, a core member of the Shwe Gas Movement Page 7
The Shwe Gas Bulletin

Russia Joins Sanction Hit Tay Za’s Htoo

Group to Explore oil and gas in Burma
Nov 9, 2010 (SGB)

Burma’s Htoo Group of Companies and Russia’s Noble Burma’s top private exporter and fifth largest overall, with
Oil will jointly explore oil and gas in Shwe U-ru block (B- gross revenues of $65.1 million. High ranking military
2) in Homeli Townhsip in Sagaing region, according to generals and family members holds shares in the HGC and
Rangoon based Weekly Eleven News. its subsidiaries.

Tay Za, a close associate of Burma’s
dictator Than Shwe is Chief executive
officer and managing director of Htoo
Group of Companies (HGC). Tay Za
consolidated his relationship with the
junta by creating Myanmar Avia Export,
Burma’s sole representative of Russia’s
Export Military Industrial Group,
(MAPO), and of the Russian helicopter
company Rostvertol. Tay Za was
instrumental in the junta’s purchase of
ten MiG-29 fighter aircraft for US$130
million.
Since 2006, other three Russian oil
companies have been engaged in oil and
gas exploration in Burma under
respective contracts. The first Russian
company, which is JSC Zarubezhneft
Iteraaws along with the Sun Group of
India, has been exploring oil and gas at
block M-8 lying in the Mottama offshore
area under a production sharing contract
with the Myanmar Oil and Gas
Enterprise (MOGE) signed in
September 2006.
Oil drilling in central Burma

HGC is the parent company of Air Bagan, a privately held
Burmese airline company. The company has several
subsidiaries. Htoo Wood Products Company Ltd. is
engaged in logging and export of timber (especially teak).
Htoo Trading Company, is engaged in construction,
property development, agriculture, transportation, shipping,
mining, hotels and tourism operations. Htoo Trading
Company and Asia World Company were the first two
construction companies granted contracts to build the new
national capital in Naypyidaw. Htoo Trading Company is
The latter two Russian companies — Silver Wave Sputnik
Petroleum Pte Ltd and the Silver Wave Energy Pte Ltd of
Kalmykia have been drilling Zeebyutaung test well-1 at
the inland block B-2 in Pinlebu township of northwestern
Sagaing region under another similar contract reached in
March 2007.
Seven foreign companies are operating onshore, including
Essar Oil Ltd, Focus Energy Ltd, MPRL Exploration and
Production Private Ltd, Goldpetrol, CNOOC, Sinopec
Oil Company and Chinerry Assests, according to statistics.

Shwe Gas Bulletin Team Arakan Oil Watch

Arakan Oil Watch (AOW), founded in 2006, is an independent
Jockai (Editor) non-governmental organization that struggle for the protection
Tulika of human rights and the environment and equity and justice for
A.K.Soe the communities from extractive industries in Arakan and Burma.
R.N.Soe AOW educates affected communities on these issues, develops and
Than Naing promotes oil and gas revenue transparency standards, and conducts
international advocacy. AOW is an active core member of the Shwe
Layout & Designed by Gas Movement and Oilwatch SouthEast Asia. Each month AOW
Herman publishes The Shwe Gas Bulletin in English and Burmese
Contact: languages, a newsletter covering the latest developments in
infoaow@arakanoilwatch.org Burma’s oil and natural gas industry.
+66 (0) 53329366 www.arakanoilwatch.org

Published by the Arakan Oil Watch, a core member of the Shwe Gas Movement