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Jan 29, 2018 News
Guyana is a newcomer to the oil and gas business. Many of the companies which are reaching out to partner with Guyana have been in the oil and gas business for decades.
It is to be expected, therefore, that most Guyanese who are entering the conversation as experts at this time, will be “book experts”. Huge oil multinational corporations know this.
As such, they can take two positions. They can teach us from their experience and offer fair deals, despite recognising our lack of experience or they can seek to exploit weaknesses to their own advantage.
Unfortunately, the agreement signed with ExxonMobil is based on the latter. It exploits Guyana’s newness and unfamiliarity with oil and gas negotiations.
One of the ways to compensate for the inexperience of countries like Guyana is through the provision of technical experts to assist in sensitive negotiations. Unfortunately, some of these experts, rather than provide sound advice to first oil countries, side with the large oil companies.
Kaieteur News will continue to expose the ‘invisible hands’ that betrayed Guyana in its negotiations with ExxonMobil.
Guyanese must not become dismayed and disheartened. They must ensure that the lessons learned from negotiating with ExxonMobil are applied to every other future contract in the oil and gas sector.
There must be full disclosure of all future contracts. These contracts must contain provisions for improved local content policies, employment protection policies and fairer fiscal measures with capped concessions.
ExxonMobil has an obligation to correct the injustice perpetrated on this nation. It must ensure that Guyana gets a fair deal for its resources. It must fix those clauses which are most egregious to the national interest and contained in its agreement.
Guyana’s infancy in the oil sector has been violated by this powerful oil multinational. The company has taken advantage of Guyana’s unfamiliarity with oil and gas negotiations.
ExxonMobil has snatched the nursing bottle from out of Guyana’s mouth. It has exploited Guyana’s innocence by encouraging an agreement which deprives Guyana of a fair deal.
Each day henceforth, this newspaper will be running a slogan calling on the oil giant, the stronger partner in the agreement signed with the government of Guyana, to remedy the defects in the contract which steals Guyana’s patrimony.
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You make this govt.look like dunces when you state that they don’t know how to deal with oil and gas companies. One does not have to be in oil deals to know the basics. We who read and listen to the news,know a lot about Exxon’s history with clandestine deals over decades.At their ages…….Granger is maybe more than 75 years old….. now, what knowledge have they gained over time as politicians. Maybe dunces is what this govt.really is! Real politicians are people who are aware and extremely alert,particularly with economic deals.