Our economic system– the global economic system — is founded upon the assumption that cheap, easily accessible oil and natural gas (the creme de la creme of fossil fuels) will always be available. But the fact is that these resources, like all natural resources, are finite. They can be used up. Experts say that the world has passed the peak of available petroleum stored on our planet. At the same time, new U.S. style economies are coming online; India and China are two examples. These and other expanding economies are demanding their share of available supplies.
Third world countries like Burma have always been victims when bigger economies, until recently these were Western economies, seek to obtain the natural resources they have needed. Oil (energy) companies have always cooperated with despotic leaders to gain access to the oil riches of “undeveloped” countries. The situation is Burma is no different. Despite the pro-democracy rhetoric of leaders in Western nations, virtually nothing has been done by these nations to require Western multi-national corporations to observe this priority in their dealings with the governments of resource rich but income poor nations.
In fact, these corporations have turned their eyes away from human rights violations in these countries. In some cases they actually benefit from the practices of oppressive governments. Oil is why the U.S. is in Iraq. As the scramble to secure energy resources proceeds in a situation where global supplies are dwindling, one wonders how this will effect the human rights of people in Burma and throughout the world.
The following video is the first of many posted on YouTube under the title Burma’s Secret War. It was posted to YouTube on November 21, 2006, almost a year before the monks’ non-violent protest and the its violent suppression by Burma’s military government.
Posted by: “Edith Mirante” maje@hevanet.com emirante on Burmaoil@yahoogroups.com.
Fri Jan 4, 2008 10:32 am (PST)
China’s Game Plan for Burma
By William Boot/Bangkok
January 3, 2008
The irrawaddy
China’s ability to elbow out other contenders for the Shwe gas—from
Thailand, Japan and South Korea, as well as India—underlines Beijing’s
rising influence within the Burmese regime
There was always going to be a buyer for the huge stock of gas in the
Shwe field off Burma’s west coast, but the fact that China won out
against higher and earlier bidders has sent a shiver down the
international natural gas industry’s spine.
A section of the Yadana gas pipline from Burma to Thailand
[Photo: The Irrawaddy]
South Korea’s Daewoo International and India’s two state energy
companies, who are developing the field, are clearly rattled that the
Burmese regime rode roughshod over them to award the gas to the Chinese.
The question now is: Will Beijing stalk Thailand’s development of
another large gas discovery off the east coast and eventually use its
influence to grab that too?
The M-9 field in the Gulf of Martaban, being developed by Bangkok’s
state-controlled oil and gas explorer PTTEP, is intended to have a
significant role in stoking Thailand’s power plants after 2011—if the
gas doesn’t get diverted to China’s Yunnan Province, like the Shwe
reserve.
Latest estimates on exploratory drillings in M-9 put the minimum
quantity of gas there at 1.8 trillion cubic feet (50 billion cubic
meters), and PTTEP said in November it had so far probed only one-third
of the site.
However, just two blocks of the Shwe field contain about 6 trillion
cubic feet (200 billion cubic meters) of recoverable gas.
There have already been reports in Bangkok that China’s state energy
conglomerate PetroChina—the beneficiary of the Shwe gas—is seeking
talks with PTTEP’s parent company PTT.
At the end of the day—whoever secures the gas deal—the Burmese military
regime is the winner.
Two independent reports on Burma’s economy underline the fact that gas
is propping up the regime financially. The International Monetary Fund
says gas sales abroad have allowed the regime to build up its foreign
exchange reserves to US $2 billion at a time when inward investment is
generally dropping.
Foreign investment in Burma is being hit by Western sanctions and a
lack of confidence due to political instability, except where energy is
concerned.
“Even if every Western company pulled out there would be other takers.
Asia is hungry for energy, and it will get hungrier,” said energy
commodities consultant Jeff Mead in Hong Kong.
The IMF’s December report said that apart from gas sales the Burmese
junta had pursued disastrously inept economic policies with inflation
now running at 35 percent a year.
This is a view shared by a new report on Burma by the British Economist
Intelligence Unit, part of The Economist business news magazine.
“The junta’s management of the economy remains poor, and major changes
in policy continue to contribute to economic instability,” says the EIU
report for 2008. “Gas exports will keep the current account in surplus
in 2008-09, but the import bill will rise, partly driven by the rising
cost of imports of petroleum products.”
China’s ability to elbow out other contenders for the Shwe gas—from
Thailand, Japan and South Korea, as well as India—underlines Beijing’s
rising influence within the Burmese regime, say analysts.
“The Chinese government doesn’t just want some stability on its
southwest border and a bonus gas source; it needs to use Burma as a
conduit, as part of its wider global strategy for energy security,”
said an economic analyst with a Western embassy in Bangkok, who spoke
to The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity. “Much of China’s foreign
policy now is geared to energy security. The country’s growth requires
more and more oil and, increasingly, gas.”
China will build a gas pipeline through Burma and into bordering Yunnan
Province, which is desperate for energy, especially after the central
government ordered a cutback in the number of hydro dam developments on
some of the region’s most sensitive rivers.
The Chinese will also use Burma as a conduit to transfer Middle Eastern
and North African crude oil via another pipeline into Yunnan, where
some of it will be processed at a new refinery and the rest piped on
farther north as far as the large industrial center of Chongqing in
Sichuan Province, according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.
These gas and oil pipelines will cost China several billion dollars,
but these days that’s cheap for Beijing. After stock market
listings—including investments by thousands of Chinese in so-called
chao gu (“stir-fry stocks”)—PetroChina is the world’s first company
valued at more than $1 trillion.
The Naypyidaw regime will earn several hundred million dollars in
transshipment “fees”—a bonus for selling the gas cheaply. Human rights
observers fear many Burmese face land confiscation, displacement and
possibly coercion to build the pipelines.
The movement of oil through Burma will be large, possibly more than 20
million metric tons a year—that’s about 400,000 barrels a day—according
to sources close to PetroChina.
Some reports suggest China will transship the oil through the existing
dilapidated western port of Sittwe, which will also be used for moving
the Shwe gas.
This would be a big blow for India, which has just signed an agreement
with the Burmese junta to invest $100 million redeveloping Sittwe as a
trade window for its landlocked northeastern states, via the Kaladan
River.
But the Chinese are also working on a new port at Kyauk Phyu on Ramree
Island to the east of Sittwe. This port will be capable of handling the
world’s largest container ships. It’s likely the two ports will be
linked by a new road.
Either way, China’s procurement of the Shwe gas is part of a wider
strategic game being played by Beijing, which also guarantees comfort
and support for Than Shwe and his fellow generals.
