Five Ministers visit Exxon H/Q in Texas

Aug 13, 2017 News

… to “familiarize” themselves with oil and gas matters

Five senior ministers of the Government of Guyana are currently in Irving, Texas, visiting with officials of ExxonMobil.
Those on the trip are Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman; Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan; Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson and Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin.
The team reportedly left early last week.
Usually, an announcement is made to the press about upcoming visits to be made by Ministers, but this instance was different.
Not a single word about the trip was made during Minister Harmon’s last post-Cabinet press briefing.
One usually reliable source has expressed concern that the Minister left to go speak with Exxon officials in Texas, but took no technical persons. The source said, “They are Ministers they should not be the ones going there to speak with Exxon’s people, they do not know what is going on.”
The person contended that “even if Ministers wanted to go, technical people are supposed to accompany them. This spells recipe for disaster.”
The trip was confirmed by a very senior government official who said that the Ministers are not in Texas to negotiate with ExxonMobil but to “familiarize” themselves with the oil and gas-related matters.
The facts about many areas of Guyana’s developing oil and gas industry are being treated as state secrets. The contract between Guyana and ExxonMobil is under lock and key.
Further, even the names of those who have and are continuing to negotiate on Guyana’s behalf are being kept a secret.
At a post- Cabinet press briefing, Harmon said that the government is not ready for the Guyanese people to know the names of the main professionals negotiating with ExxonMobil.
He told the media, “I cannot say specifically who else was there (at the negotiating table).
Those matters are still under wraps, so I cannot give specific names to you. But, what I can say is that the matter was led by the competent Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, and the government has all confidence in that Minister to lead the sector and to lead any negotiation in the best interest of the people of Guyana.”

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