"There is No Benefit, They Destroyed Our Farmland": Selected Land and Livelihood Impacts Along the Shwe Natural Gas and China-Myanmar Oil Transport Pipeline from Rakhine State to Mandalay Division
Publisher: Earth Rights International
Author(s): Earth Rights International
Date: 2014
Topics: Extractive Resources, Land, Livelihoods
Countries: Myanmar
The Shwe natural gas project and the Myanmar-China oil transport project, commonly referred to as the “Myanmar-China Pipelines” or “Shwe Pipelines” are two of Myanmar’s largest energy projects that include offshore platforms, offshore and onshore pipelines, and onshore terminals, deep sea ports and storage and processing facilities. The pipelines will transport Myanmar's gas from blocks A-1 and A-3 in the Bay of Bengal and oil from the Middle East and Africa through Myanmar to China. The pipelines will traverse sensitive marine ecosystems, dense mountain ranges, arid plains, rivers, jungles, villages and towns populated by ethnic Myanmar people and several ethnic nationalities along the pipeline’s path from Rakhine State through Magway and Mandalay Divisions, and northeast through northern Shan State to Yunnan, China. Resources transported through these pipelines will benefit consumers and industry in Yunnan and other western provinces in China and will supply the Myanmar government with multi-billion dollar revenues; little gas and no oil will be directed for domestic consumption in Myanmar. The Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the operator of the pipelines, recently stated that the projects could begin operating in early June, 2013. With significant work remaining, particularly in areas in northern Shan State where attacks against ethnic armed groups by the Myanmar military continues and in several locations where the pipeline has yet to be laid, it is likely that operations will be delayed until later in 2013 or beyond.