FRENCH OIL GIANT HARD AT WORK -- IN MYANMAR, IRAN

Total CEO de Margerie dismisses charges that Total subsidiary Yadana supports Myanmar’s oppressive regime with tax payments and points out the same charges could be leveled at other oil companies working in Myanmar and that the taxes would be paid by any oil and gas company exploiting Myanmar’s resources.

And that makes it right HOW?

He admits Total may be forced to reconsider its LNG contract with Iran if political/nuclear problems continue. He says his company is aware of US pressure but insists any company must make its own decisions on exploration risks and benefits.

Only too true. And unapologetically doing business with Iran is what you choose?

de Margerie: "Demands cannot be made to have oil prices under control and at the same time push producer countries to shut off the taps. This oil—we are required to go get it where it is."

The oil giants have been using that one for a century.

Total to continue work in Iran, Myanmar
Eric Watkins, October 10, 2007 (Oil & Gas Journal)

WHO
French oil giant Total SA, (Christophe de Margerie, CEO), French President Nicolas Sarkozy

NewEnergyNews wonders how Total expects to reconcile the 1st point and the last point. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
de Margerie said Total SA will continue to develop oil and gas resources in Iran and Myanmar.

WHEN
- Total has been active in Myanmar since the 1990s.
- Total was awarded a Helen Keller humanitarian prize in 2005.

WHERE
Total remains active in oil and gas exploration and production in Myanmar and has Iranian contracts in the works.

WHY
- Sarkozy asked Total to freeze investment in Myanmar as a way of exerting pressure on that country’s government.
- Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working in Myanmar have also asked Total to withdraw.
de Margerie uses Total’s Helen Keller award to justify its business activities in these controversial nations.
- Total has been accused of but never tried for using forced labor in Myanmar. The cases were settled out of court (as were the cases of other oil companies accused of brutalities in Myanmar).

The stock price keeps going up, nevertheless. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- de Margerie: "We did not wait for this crisis to become involved locally and [to] support activities that are in keeping with our code of conduct, which bans forced labor…[Total] intervened massively with the junta in the past to avoid these blunders…There is no forced labor at our facilities."
- de Margerie: "These taxes (30%) are paid by Total as well as by its three partners: Chevron, PTTEP (Thailand) and the Burmese national company…Total, no more so than any other company, cannot ask the government what it does with that money. Yadana earned the state a total of 350 million euros in 2006. The [Myanmar] government would have earned this revenue regardless of whether the shareholder was Total or a Chinese, Indian, Thai, or South Korean company.”