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FRONTPAGE COMMENT…WELCOME TO Exxon’s GUYANA
We take our duty as journalists and our obligations as citizens very seriously. We also take pride in our people’s hospitality and respect for investors and visitors from the region and around the world.
But as we welcome participants to the Oil Summit which begins today at the Marriott Hotel, we do so in a state of sadness because ExxonMobil has abused our hospitality, our Constitution, our Parliament and our laws.
ExxonMobil, in negotiations conducted in secret and withheld from our people, imposed a Production Sharing Agreement which ranks among the most lopsided in the modern era.
Here are some examples.
- ExxonMobil has insisted that in interpreting the Contract, the laws of Guyana will have to give way to international law and “best practice” conducted by international oil companies. See Article 27.
- The Stability Clause in the contract effectively prevents the Parliament from passing any laws that will adversely affect ExxonMobil, for the next forty years. (See Article 32.)
- ExxonMobil has decided that certain regulatory functions must be carried out by the Minister of Natural Resources and may not be delegated (See Article 6). Under our Constitution the President is the supreme executive authority and he is constitutionally free to allocate duties while the Parliament can make laws granting powers of delegation to the Minister. The ExxonMobil Contract seeks to override the Constitution and the Parliament.
- ExxonMobil has been allowed to become a monopoly block holder and monopoly operator with over 55% of the offshore operations.
We are not asking that ExxonMobil leave Guyana – we only ask that it deals with us fairly, respecting our Constitution, our Parliament and our laws. We are gracious hosts. We ask that Exxon and all international oil operators be responsible and fair guests.
Pre-Independence, our country was referred to disparagingly – but not inaccurately – as Bookers Guiana. With oil revenues likely to determine the shape of our Budget and the welfare of our people for decades to come, we do not want our country to be labelled with the prefix Exxon.
This unconscionable contract must be renegotiated with a fairer distribution of the oil take. Until this is done, Guyanese will have legitimate grounds for feeling resentful.
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Good opening shot across the bow of Exxon … I hope they and the APNU+AFC not bow down to them … Guyanese historically are the most ‘sheepish’ and docile people on the face of the earth .. and the current administration is representative of that .. if Burnham was alive today that would never have happened