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Django

No signing bonus with ExxonMobil – Finance Minister

Nov 23, 2017 Source

Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan

Finance Minister Winston Jordan has told Kaieteur News that there was no advance payment made to the Government of Guyana by United States oil giant, ExxonMobil.
In recent weeks, Government has been bombarded by questions over the allegation that the company made a $20 million signing bonus payment to the Government. This claim was first made by Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram and has been picked up by the Opposition, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
Jordan stated that such a claim is ‘a figment of the imagination’ and that there is ‘no agreement for any bonus’. Further, he noted that the Government did not request such a bonus.
Ram had said he was told of a $20 million signing bonus, a claim that the Government did not dispel until yesterday when Jordan was contacted by this publication.
At his weekly press conference from his Church Street Office, Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo told reporters yesterday that he had ‘reasonably confirmed’ that Government received a signing bonus from the oil company.
He then stated that ‘if it were true’ then the entire government should resign over the discovery of the bonus which he claimed was paid sometime within the last year.
The coalition Government remains relatively tight-lipped on its dealings with ExxonMobil amidst calls for more transparency regarding the oil and gas sector through the released of signed contracts with the company.
Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman has said that he will be seeking guidance from Cabinet about all details pertaining to the contract Government has with ExxonMobil. He had told Kaieteur News that he has “every confidence that in time, the citizens of Guyana will have full access to everything.”
Trotman said that he will refrain from further commenting, particularly on statements from some sections of society that are based on “hearsay”. He admitted that Guyana has a monumental task ahead to prepare institutional and legislative frameworks to efficiently manage the oil sector.
With no proven oil reserves just over two and a half years ago, Guyana now has approximately three billion barrels of recoverable oil and experts expect this number to further increase as the hunt for more petroleum intensifies.
ExxonMobil, alone, which has struck liquid gold several times off the coast of Guyana, has predicted 2.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil from The Liza Field. It is believed that there have already been several major upward revisions in recoverable resource estimates regarding the Liza Field with plenty of room for upside after ExxonMobil’s successful Liza-4 well and future development plans for the Liza 2 project being considered.
In early October, Exxon announced that its Turbot-1 exploration well had “encountered a reservoir of 75 feet (23 metres) of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone. This was its fifth discovery in Guyana.

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DjangoAdmin

Jagdeo says can ‘reasonably confirm’ US$20M oil signing bonus paid to govt.

Nov,23 2017

Source

In the face of continued silence by government on if it received a US$20M signing bonus from US oil company, ExxonMobil, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said that he could “reasonably confirm” the transaction and that it was paid sometime earlier this year.

Jagdeo said that he would be seeking confirmation from the United States oil major when he meets them early next month and would also press the government here to show where the money went or to whom.

“I have been able to reasonably confirm that the government has received a sum of money and approximately US$20M. They received this money almost a year ago,” the Opposition Leader told reporters yesterday at a press conference he called.

“This issue we are going to place it on the first burner. So long it just languished in the media because I think most of us felt that no government will receive US$20M as a signing bonus and refuse to make it available to the public. We are going to be pressing more to find out about this money and who has the money and who knew of this receipt,” he added.

Jagdeo stressed that in the interest of transparency and accountability government should say if the money was collected and if it was it should be reflected in the Consolidated Fund.

He said that a troubling point for him was Minister of Finance Winston Jordan publicly saying that he is not aware that monies were collected. If it turns out that the monies were indeed collected, Jagdeo said that he thinks the entire government should resign on the grounds of non-transparency with public funds.

“If this turns out to be true then I believe that the entire government should resign. If you cannot be transparent about receipts and about a company in Guyana, particularly when you are pursuing EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) …….And if the government had received the money and Winston Jordan did not know about this then where did the money did go. … How many other persons know of this, definitely the Ministry of Natural Resources should know about this payment,” the Opposition Leader said.

It was columnist Christopher Ram who first said in his October 27 column in this newspaper that he has been told by a credible source that there was a US$20M signature bonus paid by ExxonMobil as part of the new contract agreement signed when the APNU+AFC government took office.

Ram believes that this may be one of the reasons why the government continues to hold out on making the contract available.

“The Government of Guyana used the excuse of a new licence to extract a signature bonus, a payment made by a contractor on the signing of an Agreement to take up any given number of blocks. The figure I have been told is twenty million United States Dollars,” he had written in his `Road to first oil’ column.

He maintains that there was “absolutely no reason“ for a new Petroleum Agreement with ExxonMobil subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Limited and its joint venture partners since the agreement signed under the late President Janet Jagan’s administration, back in 1999, was set to last the duration of the Prospecting and Production Licences respectively.

According to Ram, he has been told by sources that the current government “used the excuse of a new licence to extract a signature bonus” and believes that in the interest of transparency government should come clean on the matter.

Government’s Petroleum Advisor Jan Mangal has said that he has told government to release the contract and that the question on the signing bonus needs to be answered.

Fielding questions from Stabroek News on the issue of transparency, Mangal said:

“My terms of reference with the President, I had transparency as the number one item. So I constantly push for transparency. I believe that all contracts should be made public. Not only petroleum, diamonds gold, timber these are all resources of the people and all of these contracts should be made public. That is my objective. I am an advisor and I obviously can only advise, that is continually my advice that these contracts be made public because in the long term that is what would help Guyana,” he explained.

“Of course the signing bonus (if paid) needs to be made public. It needs to be auditable people need to have confidence in their representatives and the way to do that is by having transparency,” he added.

But Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman says he will not be speaking on any matters pertaining to contractual arrangements on oil and gas matters and will let Cabinet guide what should be made public.

“Nothing on the contract I am discussing. I would like to take this whole issue of the publication of the contract to Cabinet for guidance because it is not a Trotman issue it is a government position and I won’t be able to discuss it,” Trotman told Stabroek News, earlier last month, when asked about whether government collected a signature bonus from ExxonMobil when a new agreement was signed with it. ExxonMobil itself has not said anything about this.

Trotman reiterated the point, via a statement through the Ministry of the Presidency, following Mangal’s interview and had the backing of Minister of State Joseph Harmon who said that Cabinet will decide on the issue.

It is unclear if Trotman has brought the matter up for discussion at any of the Cabinet meetings since.

“The Government has taken a decision at this point in time not to release the full contract. We have released quite a few details in fact and if persons are wise enough, and many are, you can put pieces together to get a sense of what is the contract but there are a number of extenuating and external issues which are being attended to, some of them have foreign affairs implications, some of them have sovereignty implications, some have national security implications and Government has been advised by external advisors and lawyers that at this point in time, that we should not bear all,” the release quoted him as saying.

“It is perhaps not palatable to everyone to accept that and sometimes advice is not always what you want to hear but it is important that if you have retained experts and others to advise you that you abide by their advice. I am confident that in due course Cabinet will lift that injunction … and that everything will be opened. There is nothing in there that could sink anyone or sink a Government. As a matter of fact, I have said that often times, it is really a continuation of a 1999 contract and it was tweaked in just a few places and so there is nothing to hide”, the release added.

11/23/171:58 AM

Former Member

No signing bonus with ExxonMobil – Finance Minister
Nov 23, 2017 Source

Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan
Finance Minister Winston Jordan has told Kaieteur News that there was no advance payment made to the Government of Guyana by United States oil giant, ExxonMobil.
In recent weeks, Government has been bombarded by questions over the allegation that the company made a $20 million signing bonus payment to the Government. This claim was first made by Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram and has been picked up by the Opposition, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).

Looks like Jordan had to dig really deep to come up with the denial of a signing bonus from ExxonMobil. Took weeks to check the Cash book.

Kaieteur News to the PNC is like FoxNews is to Trump.

11/23/176:38 AM

Former Member

Jagdeo says can ‘reasonably confirm’ US$20M oil signing bonus paid to govt.
Nov,23 2017
Source
In the face of continued silence by government on if it received a US$20M signing bonus from US oil company, ExxonMobil, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said that he could “reasonably confirm” the transaction and that it was paid sometime earlier this year.
Jagdeo said that he would be seeking confirmation from the United States oil major when he meets them early next month and would also press the government here to show where the money went or to whom.
“I have been able to reasonably confirm that the government has received a sum of money and approximately US$20M. They received this money almost a year ago,” the Opposition Leader told reporters yesterday at a press conference he called.
“This issue we are going to place it on the first burner. So long it just languished in the media because I think most of us felt that no government will receive US$20M as a signing bonus and refuse to make it available to the public. We are going to be pressing more to find out about this money and who has the money and who knew of this receipt,” he added.
Jagdeo stressed that in the interest of transparency and accountability government should say if the money was collected and if it was it should be reflected in the Consolidated Fund.
He said that a troubling point for him was Minister of Finance Winston Jordan publicly saying that he is not aware that monies were collected. If it turns out that the monies were indeed collected, Jagdeo said that he thinks the entire government should resign on the grounds of non-transparency with public funds.
“If this turns out to be true then I believe that the entire government should resign. If you cannot be transparent about receipts and about a company in Guyana, particularly when you are pursuing EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) …….And if the government had received the money and Winston Jordan did not know about this then where did the money did go. … How many other persons know of this, definitely the Ministry of Natural Resources should know about this payment,” the Opposition Leader said.
It was columnist Christopher Ram who first said in his October 27 column in this newspaper that he has been told by a credible source that there was a US$20M signature bonus paid by ExxonMobil as part of the new contract agreement signed when the APNU+AFC government took office.
Ram believes that this may be one of the reasons why the government continues to hold out on making the contract available.
“The Government of Guyana used the excuse of a new licence to extract a signature bonus, a payment made by a contractor on the signing of an Agreement to take up any given number of blocks. The figure I have been told is twenty million United States Dollars,” he had written in his `Road to first oil’ column.
He maintains that there was “absolutely no reason“ for a new Petroleum Agreement with ExxonMobil subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Limited and its joint venture partners since the agreement signed under the late President Janet Jagan’s administration, back in 1999, was set to last the duration of the Prospecting and Production Licences respectively.
According to Ram, he has been told by sources that the current government “used the excuse of a new licence to extract a signature bonus” and believes that in the interest of transparency government should come clean on the matter.
Government’s Petroleum Advisor Jan Mangal has said that he has told government to release the contract and that the question on the signing bonus needs to be answered.
Fielding questions from Stabroek News on the issue of transparency, Mangal said:
“My terms of reference with the President, I had transparency as the number one item. So I constantly push for transparency. I believe that all contracts should be made public. Not only petroleum, diamonds gold, timber these are all resources of the people and all of these contracts should be made public. That is my objective. I am an advisor and I obviously can only advise, that is continually my advice that these contracts be made public because in the long term that is what would help Guyana,” he explained.
“Of course the signing bonus (if paid) needs to be made public. It needs to be auditable people need to have confidence in their representatives and the way to do that is by having transparency,” he added.
But Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman says he will not be speaking on any matters pertaining to contractual arrangements on oil and gas matters and will let Cabinet guide what should be made public.
“Nothing on the contract I am discussing. I would like to take this whole issue of the publication of the contract to Cabinet for guidance because it is not a Trotman issue it is a government position and I won’t be able to discuss it,” Trotman told Stabroek News, earlier last month, when asked about whether government collected a signature bonus from ExxonMobil when a new agreement was signed with it. ExxonMobil itself has not said anything about this.
Trotman reiterated the point, via a statement through the Ministry of the Presidency, following Mangal’s interview and had the backing of Minister of State Joseph Harmon who said that Cabinet will decide on the issue.
It is unclear if Trotman has brought the matter up for discussion at any of the Cabinet meetings since.
“The Government has taken a decision at this point in time not to release the full contract. We have released quite a few details in fact and if persons are wise enough, and many are, you can put pieces together to get a sense of what is the contract but there are a number of extenuating and external issues which are being attended to, some of them have foreign affairs implications, some of them have sovereignty implications, some have national security implications and Government has been advised by external advisors and lawyers that at this point in time, that we should not bear all,” the release quoted him as saying.
“It is perhaps not palatable to everyone to accept that and sometimes advice is not always what you want to hear but it is important that if you have retained experts and others to advise you that you abide by their advice. I am confident that in due course Cabinet will lift that injunction … and that everything will be opened. There is nothing in there that could sink anyone or sink a Government. As a matter of fact, I have said that often times, it is really a continuation of a 1999 contract and it was tweaked in just a few places and so there is nothing to hide”, the release added.

Noteworthy.

Just like how this may not have been brought to the Cabinet, has Moses clarified in his mind yet if the 5M from the Chinese was discussed in the Cabinet (as Harmon claimed) or not?

Like how when Trump tells people to believe him, one should not believe him, so it is when Trotman says that "there is nothing to hide"

All the bombastic behavior of the PNC of old becoming clearer as the days progresses.

11/23/176:55 AM

Former Member

ksazma posted:

No signing bonus with ExxonMobil – Finance Minister
Nov 23, 2017 Source

Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan
Finance Minister Winston Jordan has told Kaieteur News that there was no advance payment made to the Government of Guyana by United States oil giant, ExxonMobil.
In recent weeks, Government has been bombarded by questions over the allegation that the company made a $20 million signing bonus payment to the Government. This claim was first made by Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram and has been picked up by the Opposition, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
Looks like Jordan had to dig really deep to come up with the denial of a signing bonus from ExxonMobil. Took weeks to check the Cash book.
Kaieteur News to the PNC is like FoxNews is to Trump.

Note his wording ...

NO ADVANCE or Agreement for Bonus . He did not denied a bonus was given by Exxon and the oil company is NOT responding to the allegation .

11/23/178:11 AM

Former Member

Dave posted:
ksazma posted:

No signing bonus with ExxonMobil – Finance Minister
Nov 23, 2017 Source

Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan
Finance Minister Winston Jordan has told Kaieteur News that there was no advance payment made to the Government of Guyana by United States oil giant, ExxonMobil.
In recent weeks, Government has been bombarded by questions over the allegation that the company made a $20 million signing bonus payment to the Government. This claim was first made by Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram and has been picked up by the Opposition, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
Looks like Jordan had to dig really deep to come up with the denial of a signing bonus from ExxonMobil. Took weeks to check the Cash book.
Kaieteur News to the PNC is like FoxNews is to Trump.
Note his wording ...
NO ADVANCE or Agreement for Bonus . He did not denied a bonus was given by Exxon and the oil company is NOT responding to the allegation .

The man waiting to shrink his goady so he can hide his share of the $20 mil. He already has the $5 mil there. Just ask Django bai.

11/23/178:24 AM

Former Member

Jagdeo was right when he told Jordan that Jordan was a disappointment as Finance Minister. The guy talks like someone else is calling the shots at the Ministry of Finance.

11/23/179:20 AM

Former Member

@Django, I appreciate your posting two sides to this story today. Keep it up and gobble up your turkey cock for thanksgiving dinner. wavey

11/23/179:25 AM

Former Member

Gilbakka posted:
@Django, I appreciate your posting two sides to this story today. Keep it up and gobble up your turkey cock for thanksgiving dinner.

Interesting!!!!

11/23/179:34 AM

Former Member

PNC hide out and laundered the $ 20 million USD. Looks like they will be having an excellent Christmas while civil servants have to eat Baigan and drink coconut water.

First order of business in 2020 is to launch an investigation and jail them all.

11/23/179:40 AM

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No signing bonus with ExxonMobil – Finance Minister

Jagdeo says can ‘reasonably confirm’ US$20M oil signing bonus paid to govt.

No signing bonus with ExxonMobil – Finance Minister

Jagdeo says can ‘reasonably confirm’ US$20M oil signing bonus paid to govt.

No signing bonus with ExxonMobil – Finance Minister

No signing bonus with ExxonMobil – Finance Minister

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