‘ExxonMobil cannot compromise nor silence us’ ‘… Guyana heavily disadvantaged by contract’ – Jagdeo

Feb 03, 2018 News, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...-by-contract-jagdeo/

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has over the lifespan of the coalition government roundly criticized it on a number of topical issues.

On oil, the PPP, while in Government, signed an exploration agreement with ExxonMobil in 1999, leading to the belief in some quarters that it adopted a softer approach to the company.

General Secretary of the PPP and former President, Bharrat Jagdeo dismissed the notion that the party has been passive and quiet about the revised Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) between the coalition Government and ExxonMobil signed in 2016

The contract has been roundly criticised by a number of economists for being overly favourable to ExxonMobil.

“We have made it clear how the renegotiations benefited Exxon, not Guyana and our people. ExxonMobil cannot compromise nor silence us, but I do acknowledge that when they come to a negotiation, they have different objectives than the people who are negotiating on our behalf,” Jagdeo stated.

“The people who are negotiating on our behalf have to get the best deal for Guyana. When Exxon sits to negotiate, they are negotiating for the best deal for their shareholders. You can’t totally blame them for pursuing their interest. It is our negotiators who have been disappointing us,” Jagdeo noted.

Further, he concluded that Guyana is severely disadvantaged by the contract.

“Up to now it pains me every time I think about it, to see that we will lose billions of dollars in the future,” Jagdeo noted.

He explained that the 1999 contract was signed at a time when there was uncertainty about oil discovery; however, by 2015, the coalition administration knew that there was oil offshore Guyana in ExxonMobil’s blocks.

He stated that Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman negotiated the contract at a time when information was available to him that there was at least 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable oil and ExxonMobil, in their continuing exploration, was finding more oil.

“That changed the entire situation, because now Guyana could strike a harder bargain,” Jagdeo stated.

The former president noted that the coalition administration negotiated a new contract, collected money in the $18 million signing bonus and hid it from the country for a year, after denying it for several months.

The PPP plans to join the legal pursuit undertaken by Transparency International Guyana Inc. to have the $18 million transferred from a special account at Bank of Guyana to the Consolidated Fund.

“We will keep speaking out against the contract. We believe the contract is an atrocious one,” Jagdeo stated.

Interesting, but somewhat muted for his style!