TOKYO/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Malaysia’s Petronas and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp are divesting their stakes in Myanmar’s Yetagun gas field, the companies said, in the latest exits by major energy companies from the country since last year’s military coup.
A spokesperson from Mitsubishi told Reuters on Friday it would be difficult to continue the business from technical and economic points of view.
The company, which indirectly holds a 1.93% stake in the Yetagun gas field off the southern coast of Myanmar, has decided to quit the project and is in talks with other partners in its joint venture JX Myanmar, he added.
Petronas told Reuters earlier this month its subsidiary, PC Myanmar (Hong Kong) Limited, operator of Yetagun field, had signed agreements for the sale of its entities related to Petronas’ upstream operations in Myanmar in July last year.
A Petronas spokesperson said the transaction was pending completion and declined to identify the buyer.
PC Myanmar (Hong Kong) Ltd holds a 40.9% stake in Yetagun, while Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise owns 20.5%. Japanese consortium JX Myanmar has a 19.3% stake while the remainder is owned by PTTEP International Ltd.
Last month, TotalEnergies and Chevron Corp, partners in a major gas project in Myanmar, said they were withdrawing from the country, citing the worsening humanitarian situation following last year’s coup.
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi and Florence Tan; Editing by Mark Potter)
