EarthRights International (ERI) has confirmed that serious human rights abuses have increased in connection to the multi-billion dollar Shwe natural gas pipeline project in military-ruled Burma, including recent reports of land confiscation on Maday Island. Compensation for local villagers on the island was reportedly promised by the Burmese authorities and the Asia World Company (whose Managing Director is on the United States sanctions blacklist), a Burmese conglomerate providing services related to the construction of the Shwe project. To date, no compensation has been provided to local people.
More human rights abuses in western Burma and along the pipeline’s route to China are likely in the near future; the Burmese junta recently issued a letter to hundreds of villagers in western Burma ordering them to vacate their land to make room for the energy project.
The companies involved and their home governments continue to be undeterred. In February, South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world's largest shipbuilder, signed a deal with Daewoo International to build the offshore and onshore Shwe gas production facilities in Arakan State and the Bay of Bengal, to be completed by March 2013. Also in February, the Indian government permitted its state-owned oil and gas companies ONGC Videsh and GAIL, both partner to the Shwe consortium, to proceed with their stake in the cross-country gas pipeline to China – operated by China National Petroleum Corporation. The Indian government also authorized the companies to invest a reported US$1 billion to further develop the offshore gas fields operated by Daewoo. These decisions were formalized by India’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, headed by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. The project’s human rights impacts were reportedly not discussed.
The Shwe gas project will generate approximately US$29 billion dollars for the Burmese authorities over 30 years, according to the Shwe Gas Movement, a civil society network from Burma advocating for the companies to postpone the project. Production is scheduled to begin in 2013.
In late 2008, ERI, the Shwe Gas Movement, and nine co-complainants filed a 48-page OECD complaint with the Korean government under the OECD’s Specific Instance procedure, alleging that Daewoo International and KOGAS were in violation of several of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises through their investment in the Shwe project. India and China are not OECD countries.
The complaint alleged that the Korean companies failed to practice due diligence to prevent negative human rights and environmental impacts of the Shwe Project, and that the companies were currently and potentially in violation of at least six of the Guidelines, including a failure to respect human rights and a failure to disclose vital information about the project.
The ERI/SGM complaint was summarily rejected by the National Contact Point (NCP) in Korea in what was regarded by complainants as a deeply flawed decision. The Korean NCP is located in the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, which is tasked with promoting overseas energy investments, and also provided a sizable multi-million dollar loan to Daewoo to proceed with the Shwe project in Burma, raising critical questions of structural conflicts of interest.
As an OECD-member country, South Korean companies are bound to follow the OECD Guidelines, which are the world’s only comprehensive, multilaterally endorsed rules negotiated by nation-states to govern corporate behavior. In this case, the companies not only failed to uphold the Guidelines, but they were not held to account by the Government of Korea for their blatant violations, violations which continue to date.
Korea’s misinterpretations of the OECD Guidelines and its failure to promote them in this case were documented in a 24-page follow-up report by ERI and SGM, entitled A Governance Gap (June 2009), which was submitted to the OECD headquarters in Paris on June 15, 2009 as human rights abuses continued in Burma.
Today, increasing numbers of local people are being affected by the Shwe project. They continue to withstand adverse impacts with no redress or ready access to justice.
South Korea’s Daewoo International and Korea Gas Corporation, and India’s ONGC Videsh and GAIL represent the consortium operating the offshore component of the Shwe project, while China National Petroleum Corporation will be the operator of the trans-national pipeline transporting the gas overland to China. The Daewoo-led consortium will hold a 49 percent stake in the cross-country pipeline, as well.
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http://www.hhi.co.kr/presscenter/presscenter01.asp?mode=read&code=1813
14억불 미얀마가스전 공사 정식 계약
대우인터내셔널 발주, 가스플랫폼 파이프라인 등 턴키 수행
미얀마 서해상의 쉐 가스전 개발, 2013년까지 설치
올 들어 원통형 FPSO 등 해양플랜트 분야 수주 활발
현대 중공업이 2010 -02- 23일(화) 총 공사금액 14억불 (1조 6,000억) 규모의 쉐(Shwe) 가스전 공사에 대한 정식 계약 서명식을 가졌다.
이 공사는 미얀마 서부 해안으로부터 약 70km 떨어진 해상의 쉐 가스전을 개발하는 것으로, 현대 중공업은 지난 2009년 10월 최종 낙찰 업체로 선정되어 대우인터내셔널로부터 발주항의서를 받았다.
현대중공업은 이를 위해 4만톤급 해상가스플랫폼 1기(일일 5억 입방피트(ft3) 생산)와 해저생산설비, 총 길이 126.5km 의 해저 파이프 라인, 육상 터미널 및 육상기지 등 공사를 수행하게 되며, 울산 본사에서 직접 제작해 운송한 뒤 오는 2013년 4월까지 미얀마 현지에서 공사를 완료할 계획이다.
특히 현대중공업은 이번 공사를 기본설계부터 기자재 공급, 제작, 운송 및 설치, 시운전까지 모든 공정을 책임지는 턴키 방식으로 수행
