At their Q2 results webcast today, SED Energy executives misled shareholders and dodged questions regarding their controversial contract in Burma/Myanmar, where they work on the Zawtika gas field. Gas revenue is a major source of revenue for the genocidal Burmese military.
SED Energy, registered in Cyprus and listed on a Norwegian stock exchange, began operating on the gas field last year, despite escalating human rights violations by the Burmese military. A loophole in European Union sanctions, which sanctions the military controlled Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) but not the oil and gas extraction sector as a whole, means that European companies can keep operating in Burma if they don’t have a direct contract with MOGE.
Staff and supporters from Burma Campaign UK, and human rights activists from Burma and around the world registered for the webcast of the Q2 results held this morning, and submitted questions about their operations in Burma.
Kurt M. Waldeland, Chief Executive Officer of SED Energy, Sveinung Alvestad, Chief Financial Officer, and Viggo Pedersen, Chief Investment Officer, all avoided answering any questions about their operations in Burma. They misled shareholders, telling them on the webcast they had covered all the questions posted, despite there being numerous questions about their operations in Burma without a single one being answered.
“Kurt Waldeland, Chief Executive of SED Energy knows his company is being unethical operating on a project funding the Burmese military, which is why he dodges questions and didn’t even mention Burma/Myanmar in his press release about winning the contract,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK.
The presentation with Kurt Waldeland and other executives gloating about their company’s profitability came a day after the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights published a new report saying the human rights situation in Myanmar “plummeted to a new low” from June last year to the end of May this year.
“SED must pull out of Burma now, and the European Union must close loopholes which allow European Union gas service companies to keep operating in Burma,” said Mark Farmaner.