Complex No. 44, Nay Pyi Taw, Naypyidaw Union Territory, Burma;
Building No. 6, Nay Pyi Taw, Burma
Official reason
Today, the United States is imposing targeted sanctions on the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). As Burma’s most lucrative state-owned enterprise, MOGE provides hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign revenues every year to the military regime’s coffers, which the regime uses to purchase weapons and military materiel from abroad. Through the issuance of a financial services directive against MOGE, the United States seeks to disrupt the regime’s access to the U.S. financial system and curtail its ability to perpetrate atrocities.
On February 10, 2021, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701–1706) (IEEPA), issued Executive Order (E.O.) 14014 of February 10, 2021, “Blocking Property With Respect to the Situation in Burma” (86 FR 9429, February 12, 2021).
In E.O. 14014, the President determined that the situation in and in relation to Burma, and in particular the February 1, 2021 coup, in which the military overthrew the democratically elected civilian government of Burma and unjustly arrested and detained government leaders, politicians, human rights defenders, journalists, and religious leaders, thereby rejecting the will of the people of Burma as expressed in elections held in November 2020 and undermining the country's democratic transition and rule of law, constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
OFAC is issuing the Burma Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 525 (the “Regulations”), to implement E.O. 14014, pursuant to authorities delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury in E.O. 14014. A copy of E.O. 14014 appears in appendix A to this part.
The Regulations are being published in abbreviated form at this time for the purpose of providing immediate guidance to the public. OFAC intends to supplement this part 525 with a more comprehensive set of regulations, which may include additional interpretive and definitional guidance, general licenses, and other regulatory provisions. The appendix to the Regulations will be removed when OFAC supplements this part with a more comprehensive set of regulations.
