We are obviously in deep, unchartered waters

Jan 08, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

The recent case of the EPA only now seeking to review the law which restricted them to fining Repsol the absurd equivalent of US$ 5,000 for a recent mud spill reveals how woefully unprepared we are for the myriad complexities of the oil and gas industry.
In her recent book “Blowout”, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow provides an expose on Big Oil. This book should be required reading for every politician and concerned Guyanese. Here are a few excerpts:
“……. government officials who, relying too much on industry’s assertions of the safety of their operations, failed to create and apply a program of regulatory oversight that would have properly minimized the risks of deepwater drilling.” (The EPA is only now lobbying the government to push for 24/7 oversight.)
“What Putin did not fully appreciate ……was that ExxonMobil was in the habit of getting final say in all of its partnership ventures.” (If Russia was unable to negotiate favourably with ExxonMobil, what chance has Guyana?)
“…..countries dependent on oil as their major resource for development are characterized by exceptionally poor governance and high corruption…often devastating economic, health and environmental consequences at the local level….In sum, countries that depend on oil for their livelihood eventually become the most economically troubled….”
“Even with less rapacious elites, there is still the baseline problem ……with big swings in the price of oil, any effort at long-term sane budgeting and investment for the population’s basic needs is impossible in a country newly dependent on oil revenues for its cash.” (My emphasis.)
“(Oil and gas companies)…..make big expensive investments that cost a ton upfront, and they need to be assured they’ll be able to collect the promised payout after all that work and expense. So the longer the relevant foreign ruler is in power, the better.” (Does this perhaps indicate which party ExxonMobil’s money is on?)
But the most damning of all: “How about the details of the production agreement ExxonMobil had negotiated with Guyana, which included an $18 million signing bonus to the Guyanese government…..
…….Exxon has its secret special menu of which exact government officials or proxies an American oil company must pay off – and how well – in order to secure the right to profit from a country’s natural resources. Without hassle from said government.”
So if Oil and Gas is the panacea for all Guyana’s economic woes, what prompted the founder of OPEC to say, “Oil is the excrement of the devil”? Or why did a former Saudi Arabia oil minister remark, “I wish we’d discovered water”?
We are obviously in deep, unchartered waters. And we only now realize we don’t know how to swim.

Clairmont Lye

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