"Corrupt politicians all over the world use companies and trusts with hidden ownership to seize public property worth billions of dollars. This deprives ordinary citizens of money that should be spent on development and empowers unaccountable elites, often helping them gain and maintain power at the expense of democracy, human rights and peace. Revealing the real people behind companies is critical to achieving genuine reform in Myanmar, where military families and crony tycoons have long benefited from control of natural resources like gas and gemstones. This is a critical time—in July 2014, Myanmar became a candidate member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global transparency standard which recommends that the identities of individuals who own and control oil, gas and mining companies are published. If Myanmar can meet the standard, it will go a long way to addressing the question of who really owns the companies that control the country?s most valuable natural assets. To test the waters, Global Witness asked each of the companies granted oil and gas blocks in Myanmar over the past 12 months to declare their ultimate beneficial ownership. These blocks were awarded in the wake of a public commitment by the Ministry of Energy to manage Myanmar?s energy sector in line with international best practices, and alongside the engagement of leading energy companies in Myanmar?s EITI process. As such, the willingness of block winners to open up their ownership is an important yardstick for progress on reform of Myanmar?s extractive industries..."