Junta forces have given up control of two oil fields managed by Myanmar’s state energy company after rebel guerillas cut off food supply routes to nearby military camps.
Production at the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise’s oil fields is the military junta’s main source of foreign revenue. The company is estimated to generate US$1.5 billion in annual revenues – or half the country’s foreign currency reserves.
Junta troops abandoned an oil field in Kyauk Khwet village in Myaing township on March 2 and another one in Let Pan To village in Pauk township on April 19, two residents told Radio Free Asia. The oil fields are about 12 km (20 miles) from each other.
“They finally ran out of food and left their camps,” said a Myaing township resident, who like others quoted in this report asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. “We did not need to fight them. We didn’t do anything with them.”
Before leaving, the troops burned down the buildings in both camps and also set fire to the oil field in Let Pan To village to keep equipment out of the hands of residents. A military jet also dropped several bombs on the Let Pan To oil field, the Myaing township resident said.
No one has been seen working at either of the oil fields since the junta troops left, although nearby residents are still able to carry out some small-scale extraction, according to a resident from nearby Pauk township.
“This is a blow to their mechanism. The junta has lost a lot of natural gas,” said a former employee of Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise who left after the 2021 military coup to join the Civil Disobedience Movement.
‘We are cutting them off’
More than 200 wells have been drilled in the two fields since around 1996, oil field staff members told RFA. The two oil fields produced the maximum amount of oil in 2018 and 2019, with about 1,080 barrels each day.
The wells in Kyauk Khwet have also produced 1 million cubic feet (28 million liters) of natural gas each day, the staff members said.
Other oil fields in Magway region are still under the control of the junta troops, said Yan Gyi Aung, a member of a rebel People’s Defense Force, or PDF, group in Magway’s upper Minhla township.
PDF fighters are aware of the strategic importance of halting junta operations at the oil fields, he said.
“The junta is getting funds from this. If they get more funds, they will buy more bullets and weapons to kill people,” he said. “We are blocking the lifeblood of their revenue and financial resources. Currently, we are cutting them off.”
Sanctions were directed at Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise following the February 2021 military coup. Another round of sanctions was announced last year by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
RFA attempted to contact junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun and the junta’s spokesman for Magway region, Myo Myint, about the loss of the two oil fields, but they did not immediately respond.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.