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TOTAL/PetroFina "Big Move" (r)



OK, dawn star, I will make one very brief and obvious point. Total is in 
Burma because there are oil and gas reserves there. If there were no oil 
or gas there, Total would not be there. You may like to claim that Total 
is there to support the military regime but I don't think Total has any 
intention of supporting the SPDC. If there were no oil or gas in Burma, 
do you want to claim that Total would be pumping millions of dollars into 
the country just to finance the military regime? I think the reason 
Total is in Burma is for normal commercial reasons. You can criticise 
them for ignoring the political situation in the country but it would 
be untrue to say that Total is there with the purpose of supporting the 
SPDC.

Do you still wish to state 'companies would much rather do business with 
dictatorships than with democratic governments'? You may say this if you 
wish (I believe in freedom of expression) but I will say that I believe 
the statement to be false for the reasons I have given before. Yes, many 
oil companies do appear to do business in countries with dictatorships. 
You should not infer from this fact that oil companies prefer to do 
business with dictatorships. Oil companies to a certain extent cannot 
choose where they do business. They go where the oil reserves are. If 
many countries with non-democratic governments happen also to have large 
oil reserves, it is not surprising that oil companies fund exploration  
and production there.

Let's try to be more rational about this. Also, most companies are not 
oil companies. Most are service companies which have a greater freedom in 
choosing where to operate. I do not observe such companies preferentially 
choosing to set up business in dictatorships. In fact, I think the 
opposite is true; they prefer the operating environment of democratic 
countries. I think this fact further proves the falsehood of your 
assertion.

Maybe this will be an end to the matter.

dawn star wrote:

>  You tell me why Total is still in
> Burma. Or rather, tell the Burmanet listserve. I am sure they want to
> know.
>