Jagdeo and oil companies
Kaieteur News – Guyana’s approval of the 5th oil project, Uaru, in the Stabroek Block was inevitable. Now it is almost official, with ExxonMobil and its partners rejoicing, and the Guyanese left holding their hands out, and wondering if they will ever get more from their oil treasure. What is revealing is the sequence around which this 5th oil project’s approval. Instead of straightness from the PPPC Government, there were these schemes, which fool fewer citizens daily.
Hess Corporation’s CEO John Hess in early August 2022 announced that a plan of development was to be submitted to the Guyana Government by the end of last year. The approval of this 5th oilfield was expected early in 2023, with the 1st quarter end floated as a strong possibility. In March, the CEO of MODEC, the Japanese firm building the Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel said approval of the 5th project was just a formality. This is what the management of Guyana’s oil boils down to: Americans rushing excitedly ahead with their plans for rich profits, and the Japanese saying approval is a formality.
Meanwhile, the Guyanese people are in the dark of where matters stand or that when the 5th project is approved, more has been negotiated for them. It is now almost the end of April, and from nowhere, Guyanese are greeted with two pieces of news relative to their oil patrimony. First, CEO Hess reported that oil has been found in the Lancelet-1 exploratory field. The second is that, within hours of Hess’s big announcement, Guyana’s oil czar, Bharat Jagdeo unveiled his own bigger announcement: the 5th project’s pending approval by the Guyana Government.
What is conspicuous is that Jagdeo is trying to make the Guyanese people believe that it is a government decision, and not his alone. By now, most Guyanese laugh at that piece of leadership acrobatics. What is also crystal clear is that the project’s approval was indeed a mere formality (like the Japanese said earlier). This late April approval by Jagdeo is part of the lip gloss applied to put a neat sheen on the process, when it was a done deal all the time.
It is obvious that the PPPC Government, and the Vice President, do not care how their stewardship of this precious national commodity is seen and evaluated. It was the Vice President himself who said that his party is prepared to lose some votes, if that is the consequence that follows. Stated differently, there is no care regarding how the Guyanese people react, and what they do to register their disapproval. What matters above all else is how he is in total sync with ExxonMobil and its partners (Hess Corp and the Chinese company) with this oil wealth of Guyana, by giving them what they want, when they want it, and allowing them to decide how much they are going to pay for it.
Guyanese know that the 5th oil project is to cost US$12 billion at the minimum. But beyond that they do not know much more at this time, when Guyana nears approval. From all indications, it doesn’t matter to the man managing the oil, Bharat Jagdeo that these new projects being lined up for approval provide openings for Guyana to explore for its advantage. Nor does it matter that these projects could be used by Guyana to give it significant leverage in extracting some comparatively better terms from what this country has been getting from all of its previous oil projects. To sign-off on this 5th project with the equivalent of our hands tied behind our backs is the worst way imaginable to represent the interests of the Guyanese people.
When all this is given careful consideration, it is now beyond doubt that Guyana’s Bharat Jagdeo is as one with ExxonMobil’s Routledge and Hess Corporation John Hess. He is closer to them than the Guyanese people where this oil is concerned. It gives new meaning to all the ducking and dodging that are now constant with him, whenever he is asked for real answers and genuine truths about the nation’s oil. The other projects being lined up for approval look similarly foregone, meaning, done deals under the same vile terms.