PPTEP, a petroleum exploration and production company that is a subsidiary of the Thai state-owned PTT Company, is considering extending its production-sharing contracts with the Myanmar junta.

The current contract is due to expire in 2028.

"We are not looking for expansion, we're just looking for securing the gas needed for Thailand and Myanmar," said PPTEP executive Montri Rawanchaikul to Reuters.

Most overseas companies have pulled out of the oil and gas sector in Myanmar since the February 2021 military coup, with the exception of Posco, Interra Resources and PTTEP.

PTTEP’s total production from the Zawtika and Yadana gas fields in Myanmar accounts for about 50 per cent of Myanmar’s electricity consumption and some 20 per cent of Thailand’s consumption, particularly in the west of Thailand.

In March of this year, the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar wrote a formal letter to PTTEP. The letter demanded that PTTEP suspend payments to the state-controlled Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE) for the gas produced from its offshore Yadana and Zawtika gas fields in Myanmar.

It also called for PTTEP to instead make future payments to the NUG.

The NUG also demanded that PTTEP provide it with information on revenues paid to the junta under the relevant contracts with MOGE, as well as monthly reports and other details of work carried out since the coup.

The NUG’s planning, finance and investment minister, Tin Naing Tun, said in an online press conference that the NUG’s objective was to cut off the money that flows through MOGE to the junta and funds its violence.

MOGE generated revenue of over US$800 million in the second quarter of 2022, mainly from the Yadana offshore gas field operated by PTTEP in the Andaman Sea.