[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
Total President with French Preside
- Subject: Total President with French Preside
- From: cd@xxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 06:47:00
Subject: Re: Total President with French President in Bangkok Asem Summit
strider will you please post on Burma Net, thank you
Dawn Star, Paris
Total?s President Thierry Desmarest accompanies French President Jacques
Chirac in Bangkok at the Asem Summit while Corporate Headquarters denies
being a source over new Sein gas discovery in Burma. Dawn Star (UVI.net,
Paris)
Paris, March 1 - Total?s President Thierry Desmarest was among the few
top French executives who accompanied French President Jacques Chirac at
the Asia-Europe Summit (Asem) March 1-2, in Bangkok, according to a
company spokesman at the Total headquarters in Paris. And while French
national television has broadcast regular news reports over the
announcement of an Airbus deal with China, with an estimated worth over
two billion french francs, there has been a virtual black-out over
Total?s investment in the billion dollar Yadana gas field in Burma?s Gulf
of Martaban. In addition to Total, the French are represented by Bertrand
Collomb, of Lafarge, and Christian Maurin, of the IndoSuez Bank.
Still more surprising, Total?s corporate in-house spokesman firmly
denied responsability as the source for recently published reports of a
new gas discovery, saying any press reports « must have been taken from
the Thai press communiqué », referring to Total?s partner, PTT
Exploration & Production. « We have not announced it, and we have no
information », he added.
It appears that the French oil and gas conglomerate wishes to avoid all
publicity over its expansion in this junta-ruled South East Asian
country. The new well, called Sein - diamond in Burmese - was drilled to
a total depth ofabout 2,000 metres with two gas productive zones,
according to executives of PTTEP, and forms part of the group?s effort to
establish additional gas reserves, on top of Yadana whose recoverable gas
reserves stand at a world-scale 5.7 trillion cubic feet.
Under fire by human rights groups, and denounced by Burmese opposition
leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as part of an overall Slorc-driven investment
program in Burma that enriches a few corrupt individuals while depleting
the country?s resources and exploiting poverty of the mass population,
Yadana is being developed by the energy group, mainly for export to
Thailand by mid-98. The consortium?s US partner, Unocal, is now under
fierce attack in the United States by human rights organisations, and
recently has hired a local lobbyist charged with the ill-begotten
purpose to defeat critical anti-investment Burma selective purchasing
legislation that is pending in the Massachusetts legislature this month.
Recently, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was quoted in the international press as
saying that is becoming increasingly obvious that (the government) hasn?t
succeeded with their economic policies. Several economists agree, saying
the military government is selling off the country?s diminishing natural
resources to raise money for massive arms purchases, and futher admit
that economic collapse is closer than most people seem to think.
"After I was arrested in 1989, there were no demonstrations," Suu Kyi
said. "Most observers came to the
conclusion that the NLD (National League for Democracy) was not going to
win (the 1990 elections), because obviously the people were not
supporting us enthusiastically." Her party captured 80 percent of the
vote, but the military government refused to honor the outcome and jailed
many elected representatives. The recent wave of arrests, NLD leaders
said, is proof that their movement is growing, not dwindling.
While the military leaders appear confident in the economic future, NLD
leaders believe the economy will deteriorate, turning the tide in their
favor. Economic hardships helped spark the 1988 uprising. Aung San Suu
Kyi attacked the ruling junta?s focus on tourism in remarks published
last week, urging more investment in schools and hospitals instead of
hotels and untimely industrial projects like Total?s Yadana pipeline
consortium deal that includes Thailand?s PTT Exploration & Production PLC
(PTTEP) and the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprises (MOGE).
? What progress has there been in the field of health and education? »,
Singapore?s « Business Times » quoted the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner
as saying in a recent interview. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi repeated her call
for foreign investors to go slow on putting their money into Burma,
saying, that since her release from six years of house-arrest there
hasnot been any real change in the situation for the people.
ebd