Fourteen advocacy groups, including Burma Campaign UK, Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK), and Fortify Rights, demanded the European Union (EU) sanction Myanmar’s entire oil and gas extraction industry and to forbid European companies from working on oil and gas projects in the country.
The joint statement released on Oct. 20 claimed that Cypriot-registered SED Energy is playing a “critical role” in the operations of the Zawtika gas field, located in Myanmar’s Gulf of Martaban, which reportedly supplies gas to a newly re-opened oil refinery in Yangon’s Thanlyin Township.
SED Energy is contracted to operate in the Zawtika gas field through Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP), which itself has a joint venture with the regime-controlled Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), according to the statement. MOGE has been sanctioned by the E.U. since 2022, as well as by the U.S. and Switzerland, for providing foreign revenue to the regime following the 2021 military coup.
The statement argued that sanctioning only MOGE, rather than Myanmar’s entire oil and gas sector, leaves a “loophole” for European companies to continue operating in the industry as long as they are not directly contracted by MOGE.
It urged the E.U. to close the loophole and review its policy of sanctioning sources of revenue, arms and equipment to the Myanmar military every April, to bar European companies from being involved in any part of Myanmar’s gas sectors, such as insurance and reinsurance.
The first of the two-phased Thanlyin oil refinery, located nine miles (14 km) southeast of Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon, opened on Oct. 14.
The refinery, operating under the regime’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MoEE), is designed to process 500,000 tons of crude oil annually. Following the first two phases, total annual processing capacity is expected to reach three million tons by 2028.
The MoEE, which is the parent institution of MOGE, isn’t sanctioned.
A DVB investigation found that the oil refinery is being revived with assistance from Chinese companies to reduce the Myanmar military’s reliance on imported jet fuel, which is vulnerable to international sanctions, foreign-currency shortages, and price fluctuations in the global fuel market.
At least 1,449 people have been killed and 3,065 people have been injured in 2,141 aerial attacks, including airstrikes, drone, paramotor, and gyrocopter attacks, carried out by the Myanmar military since March 28, 2025, according to DVB data.
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