PPP, PNC, AFC united in the sellout of Guyana’s oil resources – Nigel Hinds
Nigel Hinds
Kaieteur News – The three major political parties – People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), and Alliance for Change (AFC) – are united in the sellout of Guyana’s oil and gas resources to oil giants and their beneficiaries.
Many of their leaders are complicit and/or compromised. So says anti-corruption advocate, Nigel Hinds.
In an exclusive Op-Ed to Kaieteur News, Hinds makes the scathing criticism, which follows several years of giveaways of oil blocks by successive governments, under suspicious circumstances and with extremely generous provisions, resulting in significant value leakage for the people of Guyana. He pointed to copious reporting by Kaieteur News and, to a lesser extent, Stabroek News, on the “unconscionable” deals in dire need of renegotiation.
“The dastardly oil contracts,” the accountant states, “are mutilated beyond legal recognition. The battle for fair oil deals is akin to a battle between a deceitful David against a tyrannical Goliath. As poverty and COVID-19 overwhelms Guyana, we have only our self-serving and subjugated leaders to blame for our country’s economic inability to mitigate poverty or provide the financial resources to deal with COVID-19.”
Kaieteur News recently concluded a series on the suspicious giveaways of the Kaieteur and Canje oil blocks by former President, Donald Ramotar and former Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud. Following this, Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo held a press conference claiming that there was no corruption and no broken laws in the handling of the awards.
On the other side of the political aisle, Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon, has opted to claim ignorance of the deals and the subsequent transfers of stakes, despite serving five years in authority at the Ministry of the Presidency.
Global Witness, an independent watchdog group, has said that its intelligence tells it Harmon’s coalition may have stonewalled an investigation into the giveaways.
Similar controversy followed the release of the Stabroek Block agreement granted to ExxonMobil and its partners, by former Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman.
The contract lords over a block which holds nine billion oil-equivalent barrels. However, the terms of the agreement have been adjudged as weak and below industry standards by many political commentators and industry experts.
Despite years of protest against the terms, projected to leave billions of US dollars on the table, all of the major parties have refused to even attempt to bring the Stabroek block co-venturers back to the negotiation table.
“It’s a farce to call yourself a patriot and embrace these transparently shenanigous oil arrangements that will further increase poverty and the wealth gap in Guyana.” Hinds wrote.
These issues form only the tip of the iceberg where a lack of transparency and questions of mismanagement of Guyana’s oil resources are concerned.
“Should Kaieteur News throw in the towel, accept the sellout contracts, believe the vacuous talk from past and present political leaders? Absolutely No!” Hinds said. He holds that the industry low one percent and two percent royalty rates represent failed governance.
“Over nine billion barrels of oil owned by a population of less than 800,000, with the people spread over Guyana’s land surface of 19.7 million hectares. It is not difficult or too late,” Hinds said, “for genuinely inclusive political leadership to take this enormous rising tide of oil discovered in Guyana and monetize the oil resource for the widescale benefit of our people… Our time on this earth will expire, let us aspire to leave a legacy of doing good, doing what is in the best interest of the Guyanese people.”