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FRANCE BACKS TOTAL'S PROJECTS
- Subject: FRANCE BACKS TOTAL'S PROJECTS
- From: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 17:40:00
Dow Jones Business News -- March 13, 1997
FEER/Intelligence/Burma: France Backs
Total's
Projects
AP-Dow Jones News Service
RANGOON -- Paris has provided
investment guarantees for French oil giant Total
SA's (F.ITL) projects in Burma,
reports the Far Eastern Economic Review in its
latest edition published Thursday.
The move was prompted by the threat
of U.S. and European Union sanctions against
Rangoon. Total operates a
billion-dollar natural gas project in Burma, including
exploration in the Gulf of Martaban
and a pipeline to Thailand.
The French company owns 31.24% of the
project, while U.S.-based Unocal has
28.26%, the Petroleum Authority of
Thailand 25.5% and Burma's state-owned
Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise 15%.
Investors expect to earn $400 million
a year from the project, which is scheduled to
go into operation by mid-1998. Some
50% of the revenue would go to Rangoon and
50% to the foreign partners.
But strong lobbies in the U.S. and
the E.U. are pressing corporations to withdraw
from Burma to protest against
human-rights abuses in that country. The recent
French move indicates that such
sanctions may be imminent.