Govt allowing int’l community to define where we go with oil sector-Jagdeo- But the facts do not support his claims

May 10, 2019 News

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As Guyana prepares for first oil, preparing a framework that will ensure the country gets maximum benefit from the exploitation of the resource is key.
But Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, holds the opinion that the government is abdicating its responsibility to the sector, and that if it doesn’t take control, Guyana will get crumbs.
During a press conference yesterday, he noted, “It’s the government that has the duty to sign agreements and ensure that those agreements have provisions to protect our people, and then enforce those agreements.”
He said, however, that it seems as though the government is allowing just “a few people from the local people, and the international community to define where we go in this industry.”
While Jagdeo holds this view, the facts tell a completely different story. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the World Bank are just three of the many global institutions which have been lending assistance to Guyana as it prepares for the sector.
In any of the reports they prepare to provide guidance to Guyana on the sector, these institutions remind that it is the prerogative of the government to either use its recommendations in part or full. Specifically, the IMF has pointed this out in more than three reports it has done for Guyana.
And the government has on several occasions, made use of those suggestions that fit the Guyana context. This was reported extensively by Kaieteur News over the last three years.
Furthermore, Jagdeo, at this press conference went on to state that Guyana doesn’t know what the government is thinking. “They keep telling us they’re working on things,” and that there’s no clear vision for the sector to ensure people benefit substantially from the resources that we have.
The technical staff of the Energy Department, Dr. Mark Bynoe, has great expertise in matters of climate change, but in the oil sector, he is “ill informed and without the requisite skills to manage definitively on policy issues,” Jagdeo said.
But Dr. Bynoe has acknowledged on several occasions that the department is in need of several professionals. It has even placed numerous advertisements for various positions which he said will be filled by July month end. The Department is on the hunt for a Petroleum Development Advisor, Crude Marketing Advisor, Natural Gas Negotiations Advisor, Oil and Gas Commercial Specialist, Petroleum Commission Needs Assessment Advisor, Accounting Specialist and a Legal Advisory Services, he said.
He added that the department has already received numerous applications for these positions.
Jagdeo said that Bynoe has been operating politically, going out to tell young people that there are many opportunities in the sector, even though “the government has not defined local content in a manner that benefit Guyanese.”
“In spite of all these articles you see emanating from the Department of Energy, we have a consultant from abroad and one person who has no expertise in this sector determining our future in this sector. And our policymakers, the entire government, has disappeared.”
He said that Guyana does not have a model contract (Production Sharing Agreement), a petroleum commission, or a local content policy, and that all that is being discussed at this juncture “is getting some money from abroad to hire consultants to work in the future.”
He added that the People’s Progressive Party would have a clear definition on these issues in five to six months of being in government. But right now, he said that they’re not being addressed.
Jagdeo claimed that this government has failed Guyana, as well, in the negotiation of the contract with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL).
Guyana is set to share profits 50/50 with Exxon, and benefit from a two percent royalty for every barrel it declares. The profit would only come into play after ExxonMobil and its two other partners take their expenses out; expenses that include pre-2015 spending.
Critics have said that Guyana doesn’t get enough from that arrangement, but there has been no indication of willingness to renegotiate that contract by either of the major political players. Currently, the discovered reserves contain an estimated five billion barrels of high quality oil.
Jagdeo added that for the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Guyana is missing, in a substantive way. He noted the participation of former Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin, who was scheduled to make a keynote address on the agenda.
He said that the head of GO-Invest, Owen Verwey, was there but that he was not on the agenda to address the conference.
So Jagdeo has questioned, “What did our government say to the summit?” He believes that “they are now failing us on a daily basis when they do not give clarity or define the framework within which everyone will operate in this sector.”

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