Malaysia furthers investment in Team Junta

Oil and ethics just don't mix as Petronas, wholly owned by the Malaysian government and the country's biggest single business and contributor to the state budget, demonstrates once more. The company has teamed up with shady Burmese-Singaporean linkup UNOG in search of oil in Burma's Gulf of Martaban. The Burmese contingent is run by sons of Burma's Minister of Industry Aung Thaung, Nay Aung and Pyi Aung, the latter of whom is also son-in-law of junta No.2 Vice Snr-General Maung Aye. All of the above appear on Western sanctions lists.

Petronas is already in partnership with France’s Total in the major Yetagun offshore field which supplies Burmese gas to Thailand, and is a major source of income to the ruling junta. Its board of directors attempts to keep its conscience clean with ironic exercises in moral licensing such as this.

The Burmese military junta has earned almost $5bn from a controversial gas pipeline operated by the French oil giant Total and deprived the country of vital income by depositing almost all the money in bank accounts in Singapore (ERI Report)