Woodside Energy’s ongoing deep-water exploration campaign offshore Myanmar remains on schedule despite Monday’s military coup that ousted the democratically elected government.
Transocean’s drillship Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2 in January spudded the first of the three wildcats that are being sunk on blocks A-7, AD-1 and AD-8.
Gain valuable insight into the global oil and gas industry's energy transition from Accelerate, the new weekly newsletter from Upstream and Recharge. Sign up here
“Our current drilling campaign remains on schedule and those supporting the drilling campaign are safe and accounted for,” a Woodside spokesperson told Upstream.
“Access to key infrastructure, such as airports and helicopter services, has now been reinstated.”
She added that Woodside is continuing to progress the Block A-6 gas development activities “as a priority”.
Upstream on Thursday had quoted Saloni Kapoor, a research associate with consultancy consultant Wood Mackenzie as saying that an estimated 2 trillion cubic feet of gas supply is threatened if the A6 project does not progress as planned.
Military tightens grip
Just four days after the shock coup, the situation on the ground in Myanmar remains fluid and the military seems to be tightening its crackdown on the former civilian government.
Friday morning saw the arrest of Win Htein, a senior official from Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
Win Htein told the BBC he was arrested under sedition laws.
Upwards of 140 people, including parliamentarians and activists, have been detained since Monday, with their whereabouts unknown.
The military staged the coup after claiming that the NLD’s win in the November general elections was fraudulent, although Myanmar’s election commission said there is no evidence to support these allegations.
Biden weighs in
In his latest statement, US President Joe Biden on Thursday called on the military to "relinquish power" and release detained officials and activists
Woodside added that it is monitoring the situation in Myanmar closely.
“The situation regarding the Myanmar Government is evolving, and we continue to liaise with the Australian Government. Our access to security services remains secure.
“We remain in contact with our people in-country. They are safe and well,” the company spokesperson said.
Woodside has been operating in Myanmar since 2013 and its aim is to be “a constructive foreign investor”.
This includes investing in education, training and capability-building. In the ongoing development of Myanmar, economic stability and energy supply can play an important role.
“As a responsible investor in Myanmar, our focus remains on conducting our activities in accordance with international standards. This includes complying with Australian legislation to uphold human rights treaties and declarations and managing the social and environmental impacts of our activities,” she said.
