US$460M “bonus” is a seditious act

May 06, 2018 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Guyana has agreed to pay Exxon’s Esso – US$460M Bonus, labelling it pre-contract costs. That is 2,500% higher than US$18M that was received by the Government of Guyana and referenced as a “Signing Bonus”.
The reference is a misnomer to the extremities of accounting classification – Copper Signing Bonus is a more apt term. A neutral observer would consider the US$460M give away that was written into the 2016 Petroleum Agreement as unparalleled and unimaginable fiction.
If you have circles of varied sizes, only the area changes not the shape.
Exxon’s Esso has managed to make a contract into a farcical, unconscionable and illegal one, while maintaining it is a binding contract.
Guyana’s compliant representatives embraced and continue to genuflect and kowtow to this folly.
“Turtles all the way down” is an expression that can be linked to a country indulging in backward thinking and irrationality. Paraphrasing from Stephen Hawking’s: “When the scientist stated at a public lecture that the earth orbits around the sun… some in the audience told the scientist: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate, supported on the back of a giant tortoise?”
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying: “What is the tortoise standing on?” The respondent stated: “You’re very clever young man, very clever, but it’s turtles all the way down.”
The Petroleum Agreement is representative of the expression “Turtles all the way down” and is a major political, economic, social and environmental embarrassment for Guyanese.
As a few of our ministers, Opposition Leaders and Senior Private Sector Executives keep turtle walking or play possum to serve the “frontier” utterances of Exxon’s Esso, Guyana’s oil patrimony is being squandered all the way down.
The abusive, farcical, illegal and unconscionable Petroleum Agreement must be renegotiated for a 10% royalty. The draconian US$460M “bonus” that Exxon Guyana has committed to paying Exxon can be seen as a Seditious Act.
The neutral observer would consider re-negotiation the common-sense option – many objective commentators have asked time and time again in the media for action from our “Good and Green Government” but nothing of substance has been initiated.
A little segway into the Green economy- Exxon’s holding corporation, Esso, is only willing to pay lip service to this mysterious Green Economic Policy but is clearly not on the environmental green board.
Our leaders are too unprepared to even publish a policy paper on what are the attributes, goals, benefits and economic, technological and social benefits of the Green Economy. Aside from green being the colour of the ruling party and makes for a good narrative and subliminal advertisements, during election campaigns, the Green Economy takes a pit seat to the Esso oil economy for Guyana.
The 2016 Guyana/Esso Petroleum Agreement is injurious to logic, reason and common sense. Obviously, it does not compare favourably to any other oil agreement signed over the last 150 years. That’s since the petroleum industry was birthed in Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA, after the first oil well was drilled in the US.
Aside from the Guyanese leaders, who have been compromised by Exxon, we also have charlatans, grifters, moochers and spongers in our midst, along with front organizations, overseas-based extortionist or experts and other individuals who sing frequently, subserviently, dishonestly and hoarsely for Exxon’s Esso to earn their lucre or Judas dollars on the backs of the Guyanese multitudes.
It’s not easy to resist temptation and sell your soul for super fine crumbs from a gargantuan oil find of five billion barrels-plus some, in Guyana’s offshore waters.
At the current oil price of US$65 per barrel, five billion barrels has a value of US$325B or G$68.25 Trillion.
A huge lot of loyalty can be bought and trust betrayed for extremely small fractions of the value of Guyana’s oil. The mantra of our representatives seems to fit with the Oscar Wilde statement: “Resist everything except temptation”.
Guyana is now dubbed a “frontier” country, don’t be misled. It means small and undeveloped by those who coined the term. Yet, developed mega corporations from so-called “developed countries” are lining up in droves to access resources in the “frontier countries”.
Don’t expect any of the first world expert analysts to question the absurdity of the two percent royalty or to ask for an explanation of the farcical US$460M claim that was thrust into the 2016 Petroleum agreement and by extension upon Guyana.
Socrates, the Greek philosopher was noted as saying: “I tell you that virtue comes not from money but from virtue comes both money and all other good things for mankind”.
Let us start the renegotiation process now to change this dinosauristic Esso/Guyana Petroleum Agreement.
In a Walter Rodney-like ad mixture, Guyanese need to picture Esso in their own minds, as a representative of Exxon Mobil, the largest publicly traded multi-national oil and gas company in the world, crouched over Guyana’s oil assets, currently worth US$325B, and under the cover of a 2016 Petroleum Agreement from hell; dictating that Guyanese will only receive US$6.5B in royalties, less delivery costs.
Guyanese must resist unceasingly, in a brave, courageous and united manner, this reprehensible 2016 Petroleum Agreement, until it is changed to allow Guyanese a fair share of what belongs to us.
I ask our informed commentators not to be side-tracked by issues 40 years into the future- transfer pricing, ring fencing of taxes and tax concessions.
The focused action needed now is to have a decent royalty of at least 10% and the absolute rejection of the US$460M seditious clause in the 2016 Petroleum Agreement.
Nigel Hinds

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