By Kemol King
A strictly private and confidential report commissioned by Cabinet itself has demonstrated that ExxonMobil was intimately involved with the Ministry of Natural Resources in the period leading up to the signing of the Stabroek Block licence.
Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman
In fact, the report, which builds on information supplied by Government officials, states that an ExxonMobil official, Brooke Harris, wrote the Cabinet memorandum that Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, presented to Cabinet for its approval of the controversial licence.
Attorney-at-Law Christopher Ram, in the Friday last edition of his Stabroek News column ‘The road to first oil’, called this ‘the most important bit of information’ in the report prepared by British law firm, Clyde and Co.
The firm found that, on May 25, 2016, “Harris [Exxon’s former Commercial Advisor] provided by email a first draft Cabinet Memorandum to [Legal Advisor to Minister Trotman, Joanna Simmons Homer]”.
In that email, Harris [the Exxon official] mentioned, “We have strong operational need to complete this entire process (i.e. all agreements are signed and effective) by mid-September… The timing drives the urgency behind signing the agreements the week of June 6th (following a successful Cabinet meeting), after which we can commence the required 3 month period following our notice of intent to relinquish the current licence.”
