The Tullow give away

Oct 09, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
A KN article Oct 2nd, “Guyana’s contract with Tullow even worse than the lopsided contract with ExxonMobil.”
The article speaks of presidential hopeful, Charles Ramson telling a very dismal story of how poorly the Coalition has represented the interest of the people in oil and gas at the Cara Lodge.
It is extremely hurting to the psyche of the citizenry to learn that the Government reduce the royalty by 50%, from 2% to 1% and reduce the licensing fee, in a contract to Tullow Oil, knowing quite well that the nation was crying foul against the 2% royalty the Government had accepted in the ExxonMobil contract.
When the lopsided ExxonMobil contract was being criticized, Minister Raphael Trotman had said that Exxon deserves the advantages it had been given in the contract because, “Other companies had shied away from developing the resource offshore.”
What did Tullow do to deserve a better advantage?
Trotman had also promised that, “Government will use the lessons learned (from the ExxonMobil contract) to ensure it gets the best PSA it may sign in the future.”
How does Trotman and the Government justify a greater give away to Tullow, after the ExxonMobil contract?
Our offshore basin having been de-risked by virtue of Exxon discovering oil in commercial quantities.
How could the Trotman and the Government defend the signing of a more generous contract to Tullow than the ExxonMobil contract? Given that the Orinduik block is just 6.5 km away from the Liza one discovery in a de-risked basin, the nation cringes at this give away or sell out of our god-given franchise (oil). The logic here is indicative of “twenty pieces of silver”.
If Ramson sees an innocent mistake or a lost opportunity as the article seems to suggest- the general public sees graft and conspiracy.
For the umpteenth time since independence, civic society was not consulted on a matter that will directly affect the “well being” of the people.
According to another KN article, Oct 3rd, “Ignorance of the masses in oil and gas issues a major benefit to corrupt politicians”, Ramson, speaking at the Cara Lodge again, opined that if Guyanese want to get the best out of this or any future government, they have to keep themselves informed or they will effectively make way for a corruption paradise.
Ramson thinks that if the citizens are well informed on issues in oil and gas, only then they can hold their Government accountable.
I do not concur with his statement, neither do I think the masses will.
KN has done and continues to do an excellent job exposing the asininity of the Coalition’s handling of contracts, local content etc. and we are cognizant of the realities because of the expertise used by KN to authenticate for the benefit of the masses.
Ramson does not seem to understand our dilemma. We have been trying since independence to hold our Government accountable.
Article 13 of our present Constitution never came within striking distance of a “Hall Mark” of any Government, not even the one Charles Ramson grew up in (the PPP).
Ramson should find no difficulty attesting to that, since the public was never consulted on any matter of interest to the people during the 23 years reign of the PPP.
It is often said that knowledge is power. I can assure Ramson that we have the knowledge.
I implore him to say how we can use this power induced by our knowledge in oil and gas to hold our Government accountable in context of our present constitution.
If we were to take to the streets for every perceived misuse of state funds, every contract giving away of our resources, relative to the norm in the oil and gas industry or every conceived violation of the Constitution that has been exposed by journalists, commented on by oil and gas experts or pontificated on by the luminaries in society since the advent of the Coalition, all gracing the pages of KN, we would have been occupying the streets permanently, seeking redress and the reality would have been no different.
Surely Ramson should concur with that.
As a presidential-want-to-be, it would be prudent for Ramson to put forward his thesis of how he would make this present mode of unaccountability by Government to the masses any different and what concrete constitutional leverage would be placed in the hands of the people, as a guarantee, should he get a chance to ascend to the presidency.
Rudolph Singh

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