Letter from Southeast Asia: Pttep unlikely to quit Myanmar

The fallout from Myanmar’s coup may not be enough to discourage the Thai state-owned firm

When TotalEnergies and Chevron announced their exits from Myanmar’s Yadana concession in January, they left Thai state-owned Pttep as the project’s only remaining international partner, and essentially having to stay in order to safeguard Thailand’s energy security. The seeds of the current situation were sown in December 2018, when Thai authorities awarded the country’s Erawan concession—which produces the bulk of Thailand’s domestic gas output—to a group comprising Pttep and UAE state-owned investment vehicle Mubadala Petroleum once the existing contract expired in 2022. Erawan’s current operator, Chevron, has slashed development drilling despite Thailand’s offshore geology requiring conti