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'Total won't quit Burma play'


French giant Total will not exit Burma's play but is not looking to make new investments in the country, company boss Christophe de Margerie said in an interview published today.

Speaking to French daily newspaper Le Monde, de Margerie said: "Investing in this country today would be a provocation.

The interview comes after a number of non-governmental organisations said the presence of energy giants in Burma helped prop up the military junta and its hold over the country.

"We have a dialogue with non-governmental organisations when they accept it (the dialogue), we listen to them but they do not decide what the group does. Total will not withdraw (from Burma)," de Margerie said.

Last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a freeze on investment by French companies in Burma, where protesters were killed in a crackdown on peaceful monk-led protests against the junta's rule.

Total is one of the biggest foreign investors in Burma, where its joint venture earns the junta hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to the Burma Campaign UK website.

"We have heard the head of state's message, which was clearly aimed at us," de Margerie said. "Our investments (in Burma) go back to the 1990s and there's no plan for new ones."

De Margerie added while some NGOs had asked Total to leave the country, others deemed the French group's presence "useful".

"In the past, we have intervened strongly with the junta to avoid excesses," he said, also rejecting claims by Burmese refugees that Total was involved in forced labour of workers in building a pipeline in the country.

"I repeat it: there is no forced labour in our facilities," de Margerie said.

On Monday, Belgian prosecutors reopened an inquiry into alleged crimes against humanity by Total in Burma.

De Margerie said the Yadana gas project, in which Total has a 31% stake, generated €350 million ($493.7 million) in taxes for Burma.

On Iran, de Margerie repeated that rising costs and geopolitics held the key to Total's decision to invest in the multi-billion dollar Pars liquefied natural gas project.

Asked whether there was any pressure from the US on Total to pull out of the country, de Margerie said: "Very strong (pressure). But I don't have any from France."

"If a company like ours had to listen to these countries which decide what is good and what is bad, where would we be?" he added, drawing a parallel to the situation in Libya where Total has been present "before, during, and after the crisis".

De Margerie also said he did not believe that US military action against Iran was imminent.

"If we believed this, I would immediately ask for our staff to be repatriated."


Friday, 05 October, 2007, 10:36 GMT  | last updated: Monday, 08 October, 2007, 01:07 GMT

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