1 - Myanmar Names and Terms

Aung San Suu Kyi: Head of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the main political organization of democratic movements in Myanmar. Daughter of Aung San, who became a national hero during the movement for independence, she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She was detained in May 2003 and has been held under house arrest since October 2003.

Karen, Shan, Kachin, Mon: Four of Myanmar’s largest ethnic minorities. One Mon village and three Karen villages are located near the Yadana pipeline.

Kyat: Myanmar’s national currency.

Myanmar: The name officially adopted by Burma in September 1988. On the website, the names Myanmar and Burma may be used interchangeably.

VPDC: Village Peace and Development Council, formerly the Village Law and Order Restoration Council (VLORC). These committees are comprised of the Head of Village and of people considered as reliable by the government. Their role is to manage local affairs and serve as a liaison with authorities.

Yangon: The name officially given to Rangoon, the capital of Burma, in 1988.

Yadana: An offshore natural gas field operated by Total with Unocal, PTT-EP and MOGE as co-venturers. Yadana is located in the Andaman Sea, approximately 60 kilometers offshore the nearest landfall in Myanmar. The field contains more than 5 trillion cubic feet (150 billion cubic meters) of natural gas, with an expected field life of 30 years. Output averaged 18.5 million cubic meters per day in 2005.

Yetagun: A natural gas field located in the Andaman Sea southeast of the Yadana field. Yetagun is operated by Premier (replaced by Petronas in 2002), in partnership with MOGE, PTT-EP and Nippon Oil.

Ychaugyaung, Chauk: Myanmar oil fields discovered around 1900 and still in production.

2 - Associations, Organizations and Companies

ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asia Nations) : Southeast Asian economic and political organization created in 1967 by the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Myanmar joined ASEAN in 1997. Originally comprised of United States allies in the region, the organization is dedicated to promoting the economic growth, social advancement and cultural development of member countries through increased cooperation in all areas. In the 1980s, as Vietnam’s influence in the region increased, political issues were included in the ASEAN cooperation program.

Beicip-Franlab: A multi-disciplinary consulting firm working mainly for the oil industry. It provided Total with expert knowledge of socio-economic conditions in the pipeline region to identify residents’ needs before the project was launched.

BK Conseil: Consulting firm founded by Bernard Kouchner, a humanitarian physician familiar with the situation in Southeast Asia. At Total’s request, Dr. Kouchner visited Myanmar in March 2003 to form his own opinion and make recommendations.

BOC: Burmah Oil Company. Founded by the British, it was active in the country from 1886 to 1963, when foreign oil interests were nationalized.

CDA: The Collaborative Learning Projects (CDA) is a non-profit consulting agency based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and specialized in issues related to development aid and humanitarian projects in conflict or post-conflict contexts. The CDA works with governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and universities. It initiated the Corporate Engagement Project, which is supported by several governments and by Total and Unocal, among others, to help multinational corporations better understand the impact of their activities in areas affected by socio-political tensions or conflicts. CDA teams have visited the Yadana pipeline corridor four times—in October 2002, April, December 2003 and in April 2005. The mission reports are available on the internet.

Helen Keller International: A US foundation that conducts blindness prevention programs around the world by supplying equipment, medicine, training and specialized staff. Its actions in Myanmar, which are supported by the Socio-Economic Program initiated by Total and its co-venturers, are part of a local program known as the Trachoma Control and Prevention of Blindness Program of Myanmar.

International Crisis Group (ICG): An independent, non-profit, multinational organization, with over 90 analysts on five continents. The ICG works through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict. Its reports contain practical recommendations targeted at key decision-makers. The ICG Board, which includes prominent figures, is involved in giving greater impact to the organization’s reports and recommendations.

MGTC: Moattama Gas Transportation Company. It is responsible for piping gas from the offshore Yadana production platform to the Thai border. The shareholders are subsidiaries of Total, and Unocal, plus PTT-EP and MOGE, whose working interests mirror those of the Yadana project.

MOGE: Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise. A government-owned company created in 1963, it is responsible for oil and natural gas exploration and production in Myanmar, as well as domestic gas transmission through a 1,200-mile onshore pipeline grid.

MPE: Myanma Petrochemical Enterprise. A government-owned company, MPE operates three refineries, four fertilizer plants and a number of other industrial sites.

MPPE: Myanma Petroleum Products Enterprise. MPPE is a government-owned company that is responsible for retail and wholesale distribution of petroleum products.

NLD: National League for Democracy. Headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD is a political coalition that won the 1990 elections.

PLC: Abbreviation for pipeline center. The PLC for the onshore portion of the Yadana pipeline is located near Kanbauk and comprises processing installations and accommodation.

PTT-EP: Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration & Production, a partner in the Yadana project and the main purchaser of the gas produced.

UNOCAL*: A US oil company, a subsidiary of which holds a 28.2625% interest in the Yadana project. Two lawsuits related to the project have been filed against Unocal in the United States and Belgium.
* Chevron since 2005

3 - Legal Documents

Total E&P Myanmar's Code of Conduct: A statement of principles that has guided Total’s actions in Myanmar since 1995. Regularly updated in response to the situation, the document was appended to agreements signed with Total subcontractors in Myanmar.

Sustainable Development: Concept introduced in 1987 in the Our Common Future report prepared by the Brundtland Commission and submitted to the United Nations General Assembly. It proposes an integrated approach for “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” For oil companies, this entails in particular optimizing recovery of non-renewable resources, integrating operations into local communities and reducing the environmental footprint of their operations.

Global Compact: This initiative launched by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1999, calls for multinationals to make a voluntary commitment to extending the principles expressed in two fundamental texts: The 1976 Declaration by the Governments of OECD Member countries on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises and the ILO 1977 Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy.

Town Act and Village Act: So-called “statute labor” or “forced labor” laws introduced in Burma by the British colonial authorities in 1907 and 1908 respectively. They legalized the conscription of villagers by the Army or government to work without pay to build public infrastructure or perform other tasks. The laws were repealed in 1999 following pressure from the ILO, but eradication of this practice will require a lasting commitment by the Myanmar authorities.

4 - Terms Specific to the Yadana Project

Communication Officers: The three communication officers, known locally as Communication Officers, are members of the socio-economic team. Their role has changed according to the project’s needs. At the outset, they were in charge of presenting the project to villagers, helping them establish the Village Communication Committees, gathering their opinions and reporting their suggestions. They serve as the primary interface for the Committees and villagers, in liaison with specialized members of the socio-economic team (physicians, agriculturalists and veterinarians).

Socio-Economic Program (SEP): The goal of this support program is to ensure that the surrounding population benefits from the industrial project. The Yadana SEP was launched in early 1995, before the Yadana project fieldwork began, and was initially intended for residents of the 13 villages in the pipeline corridor and has since been extended to include twelve other villages. It was designed in cooperation with villagers and has been implemented in the spirit of sustainable development, with focuses on four areas: health, education, economic development and infrastructure. It also includes initiatives aimed at a wider public, such as funding for orphanages in Yangon and a national program to combat blindness.

Village Communication Committees (VCCs): Bodies created at Total E&P Myanmar’s initiative to establish dialogue with villagers. They are the primary communication channels between Yadana pipeline operator MGTC and the residents of nearby villages. Each Committee is comprised of seven to 11 representatives—including the Head of Village or another member of the Village Council—all elected by the villagers. The Committees do not replace official structures in the villages, but rather define and implement the Socio-Economic Program that supports the Yadana project. They perform vital functions in this area, such as expressing the villagers’ health, education and economic needs and discussing the resources to be deployed to meet these needs with SEP representatives. During project implementation, they submitted applications for villagers who wanted to work on the pipeline and discussed the criteria used to determine the compensation paid to farmers prevented from using some of their land because of the pipeline project.

5 - Technical Terms and Units of Measurement

Acre: A unit of land in English-speaking countries equivalent to 40.47 ares or 4,046.86 square meters.

Barrels per day: A unit for measuring crude oil, equal to roughly 159 liters (42 US gallons or 35 imperial gallons). It is widely used in the oil industry, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom. Its origin dates to the barrels used to transport liquids in the days of sailing ships. “Day” designates any period of 24 consecutive hours. One barrel of oil is equivalent to 0.136 metric tons.

Cubic feet: Unit of volume used in English-speaking countries to measure natural gas production. One foot is equal to 0.3048 meters. One gigajoule (GJ) is equal to 950 cubic feet of natural gas. One cubic meter is equal to 6.3 barrels of oil or LPG or 35.3 cubic feet of gas.

Inch: Unit of measure used in English-speaking countries, equivalent to 2.54 centimeters.

Megawatt (MW): Standard unit of power to indicate the generating capacity of a power plant, equivalent to one million watts or one thousand kilowatts.

Natural gas: Either the gaseous fraction of oil, in which it is dissolved (“dissolved gas”), or the product of direct microorganism fossilization (“dry gas,” even if it often contains small amounts of condensate). Lighter than air, natural gas is a mixture comprised, depending on the field, of 70 to 95% methane, the simplest hydrocarbon with a specific gravity of 0.55. Natural gas has high heat of combustion and, in equal volumes, generates twice as much heat when burned as city gas. Once desulfurized, natural gas is the cleanest of fossil fuels, but it requires the same precautions for use as the others or its combustion will generate nitrogen oxides. It has the advantage of producing no sulfur-containing compounds or carbon monoxide when burned—just water vapor and carbon dioxide. In this way, it plays an important role in reducing atmospheric pollution. Moreover, the absence of carbon monoxide means that natural gas is not toxic.

Oil equivalent: In theory, the unit of energy, work and heat is the joule, but the toe (ton oil equivalent) is also used. In France, 1 toe = 42 GJ.

Equivalences :

			1 toe (ton oil equivalent) 7.4 barrels of crude as primary energy 7.8 barrels of refined oil for end-use consumption 1,270 cubic meters of natural gas 2.3 metric tons of coal
			1 J (joule) = 1 Ws (Watt-second) = 0.2388 calories
			1 kWh (kilowatt-hour) = 3,600,000 joules
			1 million metric tons of oil is equivalent (TOE) to: 1.5 million metric tons of coal 1.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas 2.5 million metric tons of firewood 4 terawatt-hours of electricity 2 metric tons of uranium (fast breeder reactors)

PSC: Production sharing contract. Countries with oil or natural gas resources contract with one or more oil and gas companies to explore, appraise and develop these resources. The companies that invest in the project are paid in kind with a percentage of the volume produced, while the host country retains ownership of the resources and facilities. A percentage of the oil or gas produced is used to cover the investor’s expenses, including depreciation of the facilities (“cost oil” or “cost gas”). The remainder is shared by the project partners and the host country (“profit oil” or “profit gas”).

Pipeline: Pipes, which may be branched or meshed, for long-distance transportation of crude oil or gas (natural gas or an intermediate like ethylene). A gas pipeline is a specialized pipeline made of welded steel tubes. Its diameter can vary from 20 centimeters to two meters; the Yadana pipeline has a diameter of 90 centimeters. The pipes are protected with an outer coating before they are buried. The entire pipeline also receives cathodic protection. Because gas is piped under pressure, pressure-regulating stations are installed every 80 to 100 kilometers. Some are equipped with gas turbine compressors that consume a small percentage of the piped gas.