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“We are looking, listening and ready to learn from other oil-rich countries” – Harmon
By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
“Of course!” said Minister of State, Joseph Harmon when asked on Friday if the government is taking heed of the lessons learnt by other countries that have allowed ExxonMobil to drill for oil.
Minister of State,
Joseph Harmon
The question posed to Harmon was loaded. The reporter highlighted some of the problems faced by countries like Papua New Guinea, Chad and Nigeria. Issues like the underpaying of royalties, destroying the environment and ignoring Climate Change were noted, and then the question was posed, “Has the government been taking note of some of the things Exxon did in the past, and are you looking to put safeguards in place to make sure we do not end up experiencing the same fate?”
Harmon responded expressing absolute certainty that the government is ready to learn from the mistakes of others.
“When I said earlier that we look at best practices, it means that we have to take into consideration all of the issues with respect to the industry that have taken place before. We are taking note of all that is being said,” said Harmon.
The Minister continued, “As a government, we have no issue with persons who are bringing up information for the benefit of the Guyanese people. So, if there was a practice in some country, it is always important for us to know.”
He said that the experience of other countries will be considered in negotiations and engagement with any foreign company that Guyana deals with.
“We will be best served by the information provided and the government is not a repository of all information.”
Harmon said that the world is so interconnected that “there are people in different parts of the world that can say look at this and look at that, and I believe that in the current environment we are taking note of all of the information that is being provided by Guyanese.”
Just Friday last, Kaieteur News carried the advice offered to the Government of Guyana by former Trinidad and Tobago Minister of Energy, Kevin Ramnarine. Ramnarine, who has a wealth of knowledge about oil and gas, said that Guyana will do well to learn from the mistakes made by other countries with oil economies.
The politician said that if he were the President of Guyana at this point, he would be concerned about Guyana going down the road of ruin taken by some oil-based economies.
“I would contemplate the words of one of the founders of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), a Venezuelan named Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso. In 1975, he said: “I call petroleum the devil’s excrement. It brings trouble…Look at this locura—waste, corruption, consumption, our public services falling apart. And debt, debt we shall have for years.”
Ramnarine said that indeed, there would be a long list of things to do before 2020. “Make no mistake about it, the years 2017 to 2020 are the most crucial years in the post-independence history of Guyana,” he said.
He continued, “In these years, Guyana must follow the tailor’s rule “measure twice, cut once”. You have one chance to get this right. The good news is there are a lot of countries that can serve as examples.”
Ramnarine said that Guyana has an opportunity to build an Oil and Gas Sector that has benefited from the lessons learnt from other countries around the world.
He said that in looking at some of the countries that are big producers of oil, one can easily identify countries that Guyana should not want to emulate. “We don’t have to go very far. Venezuela is a prime example of “Resource Curse Thesis” and “Dutch Disease”. In fact, there is a spectrum that starts with Venezuela and ends with Norway, and you have to determine where you want to be on that spectrum.”
Ramnarine admitted that Trinidad made many mistakes,but he said that the fundamental difference between Trinidad and Guyana is that Trinidad inherited an oil industry from the British at Independence. But, Guyana will be building an industry from scratch “and that may not be such a bad thing.”
“This is a blank canvas. We didn’t have a blank canvas (in Trinidad and Tobago) at Independence. We had an established oil industry at Independence. But this is not a bad thing. It’s a good thing. You have an opportunity to take the best from the experiences of other countries and make your own Guyana model, so that 20 years from now we won’t be talking about the Norway model. We will be talking about the Guyana model.”
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