Last week, ERI’s Burma Project made a presentation at Chiang Mai University’s public forum discussing the fallout from Cyclone Nargis. Project Coordinator for Pipelines & Mining, Matthew Smith, introduced the environmental and social impacts of Thai energy investments in Burma, detailing Burma’s trade and investment figures attributed to Thai involvement, and focusing specifically on the impacts of investments made by the Thai oil company PTTEP. Despite revenue from Burmese gas exports to Thailand and foreign direct investment both being at record high levels, the benefits of this economic surge have yet to reach most of Burma’s people. What is more, these activities have directly resulted in an increase in human rights and environmental abuses committed by the Burmese military against the people living along PTTEP’s Yadana and Yetagun gas pipeline projects in the Tenasserim region of Burma. PTTEP is in partnership with Chevron and the French company Total in the Yadana project. The companies continue to rely on the Burmese Army to provide security for the project, leading to forced labor, rape, torture, killings, displacement, and ethnic discrimination. ERI would like to thank the Thai organizers of “60 Days After Nargis” for their commitment to justice and humanitarian relief in Burma.

 Click here for a factsheet of Thai energy investments in Burma

| Learn more about the work of the Burma Project | Read about ERI's coverage of Cyclone Nargis |

Read ERI's latest report about Chevron in Burma