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Ramson’s claim on oil block is laughable
DEAR EDITOR,
Constructive criticism and sound commentary are necessary ingredients for a transparent and robust oil and gas sector. All hands must be on deck to ensure accountability on the part of government and companies operating in Guyana’s emerging petroleum industry.
For persons to be taken seriously however, their commentary and position on matters of concern should be based on principle and fact, and not merely on the basis of opposing for the sake of doing so.
Former PPP Member of Parliament, Charles Ramson Jr. has been relentlessly criticizing every aspect of oil exploration, development and imminent production with a zest usually reserved for politicians opposing the policies of their opponents.
Ramson’s party while in government negotiated the 1999 deal that led to the first major oil discovery in 2015 – the largest in the world at the time. Suddenly, now that his party is no longer in office, the very deal it negotiated is ‘bursting with flaws’, none of which Ramson highlighted prior to the May 2015 elections.
The Stabroek Block was the same size in 1999 when the deal was signed as it is now. ExxonMobil and its partners were the same companies in control of the block then, as they are now. Ramson said in a recent letter in the press that “the block is too large, companies are often unable to penetrate all of the area of that block because the more you do, the more expensive it is and as a result, you are not getting the real value.”
Unable to penetrate all of the area? Not getting value? Let us examine these claims.
First of all, licenses issued to companies operating offshore Guyana and most places in the world, come with an expiration date and a ‘use it or lose it’ clause. ExxonMobil or any other company simply cannot acquire a block, sit on it and do nothing. “Not penetrating” the area is not an option.
Secondly, multiple reports in the public domain indicate that following the first Liza discovery, ExxonMobil deployed two seismic vessels to acquire data, covering an area over approximately 6,500 square miles, comparable to the land mass of the Hawaiian Islands. This was reportedly the largest seismic survey the company had ever conducted anywhere on the planet, up until that time. The company therefore has been ‘penetrating the area.’
Thirdly, on the issue of ‘getting value’, due to these very large-scale ‘penetrations of the area’ to use Ramson’s terminology, Exxon and its partners have made 9 discoveries in different and diverse sections of the Stabroek Block, amounting to more than 4 billion barrels of recoverable oil. This success rate is unprecedented. The volume of oil discovered so far will generate billions of dollars for both the company and its partners and shareholders, and most importantly, the people of Guyana.
Ramson must put an end to what is becoming a shameless crusade; one that is based on a political agenda, riddled with half-baked truths and outright misinformation.
Sincerely,
Clement Smith
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