Singapore-listed oil company Interra Resources stated on Thursday that the extension of a production-sharing contract between its subsidiary, Goldpetrol Joint Operating Company (GJOC), and the regime-controlled Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) was finalized years before the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021.
“The company has no control over or power to dictate how the MOGE distributes or uses the oil that is produced by GJOC,” Interra stated, and called a Justice for Myanmar report on Jan. 29 “sensationalization.”
The whistleblower group accused Interra Resources of supplying the regime with more than 2.3 million barrels of oil from January 2021 to the end of 2023 worth more than $150 million USD.
Interra Resources stated that it holds 60 percent of shares in GJOC through its wholly owned subsidiary, Goldwater Company Limited (GCL).
The remaining 40 percent is owned by North Petroleum International, a subsidiary of China North Industries Group Corporation (NORINCO), a Chinese state-owned arms conglomerate that also supplies weapons to the Myanmar military, according to Justice for Myanmar.
“The company’s business with MOGE directly supports the junta’s widening campaign of terror, which has killed children, destroyed schools and hospitals, and displaced over 3 million people,” said Yadanar Maung, the Justice for Myanmar spokesperson.
“Interra Resources’ business has been enabled by a lack of international action to cut the junta’s access to funds, arms and fuel,” she added.
Justice for Myanmar has called on Singapore to impose targeted sanctions on the regime in Myanmar and end the company’s operations in the country. GJOC provides one of the few remaining sources of oil for the military, refining it into jet fuel and diesel.
GJOC operates two of the onshore producing oil fields in Chauk and Yenangyaung in central Myanmar. It secured the contract for oil exploration and production with MOGE in 1996. The deal was extended for 11 years in April 2017, during the National League for Democracy (NLD) administration.
The company added: “The report therefore contains untrue allegations that GJOC is ‘favouring the junta’, ‘has long enjoyed a close relationship with the Myanmar military’ or that GJOC signed the contracts with the ‘previous military junta’.”
The military’s airstrikes have killed 2,257 and injured 3,417 civilians between Feb. 1, 2021, and Nov. 30, 2024, according to the Blood Money Campaign, a coalition of anti-coup activists that are leading calls for a ban on aviation fuel exports to Myanmar.
The MOGE was sanctioned by the U.S. and the E.U. following the 2021 coup.
