Latest update January 20th, 2025 4:00 AM
Govt. cannot be trusted with pursuit of Gas Development Plan–Ramson -Says APNU+AFC lacks legitimacy, confidence of the people
By Kiana Wilburg
As ExxonMobil and its partners continue to explore the Stabroek Block for oil, sizeable quantities of gas are being discovered. In the absence of a national plan for this resource, the operators are left with no choice but to re-inject it.
Attorney-at-Law & Petroleum Consultant, Charles Ramson
To combat the foregoing challenge, the Energy Department has said that a gas development plan is being pursued; a feasibility analysis will be included.
But given the grave mistakes made with the oil sector, Attorney-at-Law, Charles Ramson, opines that this should not be pursued. Ramson said that not only has the government lost the trust of the people given its incompetence, but it also lost its legitimacy when the No-Confidence Motion was passed in the National Assembly on December 21, last.
“There are two issues here. One, the government’s track record with oil has been poor at best. And two, it is no longer legitimate as a result of the No-Confidence Motion’s successful passage.”
Turning his attention to the government’s track record in preparing the nation for oil, Ramson stressed the relevant governance structure for this resource is not in place.
Furthermore, Ramson said that there have been some glaring mistakes which will have a lasting negative impact on Guyana’s international image and its economy. Ramson noted that in the 2016 re-negotiation of the Stabroek Block deal with ExxonMobil and its partners, the government failed to hire the skilled experts who would have secured a better deal and signature bonus.
At the outset, he articulated that the Government did not treat oil as an apolitical sector which would have allowed the best and the brightest minds to work on the policies and laws that seek to prioritise the interest of Guyanese while increasing investor confidence.
He reminded that there were many persons who were excluded from the process simply because they were not supportive of the government’s party.
Ramson said that no one knows how Eco Atlantic and Tullow Oil received a contract in 2016 after the discovery of oil in 2015 on worse terms than the ExxonMobil contract. The attorney reminded that the negotiated royalty for this contract that governs the Orinduik Block was one percent.
He also bemoaned the fact that no signature bonus was acquired for this block, which was recently proven to be oil rich.
Furthermore, the 35-year-old expressed disappointment that the local content policy and legislation are not in place. He noted that this state of affairs has resulted in Guyanese losing access to billions of dollars worth of opportunities.
Ramson also highlighted the folly of the government in managing the sector, stating that it created an Energy Department and placed Dr. Mark Bynoe, an environmentalist, as its head. He emphasised that such a department needs an oil specialist as its leader.
“…He (Dr. Bynoe) does not have the political clothing necessary to speak on behalf of the people.”
He noted that four years after oil was discovered, there remains no local capacity to audit the expenditure of the international oil companies. Ramson reminded that those costs are usually inflated and can significantly eat away at the profit oil Guyana is expected to benefit from.
Considering the foregoing missteps with the oil sector, Ramson reiterated that a gas development plan should not be pursued at this point.
He said that this plan should have been done years back. The lawyer said that the opportune time for getting same done would have been shortly after the major oil discovery announcement in 2015.
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