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ExxonMobil US$10M donation to CI highlights the disrespect in US$18M signing bonus- Columnists
Conservation International (CI), an American environmental company, has been able to broker a US$10M deal with USA oil king, ExxonMobil. But Guyana, during its negotiations with ExxonMobil in 2016, was only able to secure US$18M.
WPA Executive Member, Dr. David Hinds
Local columnists have found this situation to be another instance which highlights disrespect for the country.
Executive Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Dr. David Hinds, believes that the problem goes much deeper than disrespect.
In a telephone interview last night, the columnist said, “What ExxonMobil is showing you is that it is prepared to exploit the weaknesses of countries. You have to understand what is happening here.
The fact that they gave CI US$10M says a lot about how a mere company was able to negotiate with Exxon. If we had bargained from a position of strength, we could have gotten more.”
The political analyst added, “If we did our homework on ExxonMobil and see how other countries have made bad deals, how they erred, then we could have gotten more.
“Kaieteur News has done more research on ExxonMobil than the negotiators who accepted the US$18M… So it is a combination of things…ExxonMobil was ruthless, it took advantage of a weak country.”
Another Kaieteur News columnist writing under the pseudonym, “Peeping Tom,” was also critical of the US$10M deal. The columnist said, “The problem of CI’s deal with Exxon goes beyond conflict of interest.
Guyana received a signing bonus of US$18M from Exxon as part of the rights for the oil giant to explore oil reserves estimated at in excess of US$200B. This is tantamount to a billionaire giving $2 to a beggar.
It is shameful that CI could have extracted US$10M from Exxon Trust Fund but Guyana’s top oil negotiators could only manage US$18M. It just shows how Exxon took advantage of Guyana.”
The deal between Exxon Mobil and Conservation International has come in for much condemnation from the political Opposition, which believes that the company and its integrity might be compromised by the handsome donation.
But the US$10M deal with Exxon Trust Fund is not the first time that CI has been accused of being compromised. CI for years has been accused of being an over-bloated organization, which is administered by the largesse of corporate polluters. (See Tom Zeller’s critique of CI in a Huffington Post article entitled, “Conservation International Duped By Militant Greenwash Pitch)
On Monday last, ExxonMobil via a missive to the media said that the US$10M donation will fund a collaborative effort between Conservation International and the University of Guyana to train Guyanese for sustainable job opportunities and to expand community-supported conservation.
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