ExxonMobil should accelerate reporting of production data – University of Houston Instructor

Jan 21, 2020 News

With Guyana already one month into being an oil producing State, calls have increased for there to be public disclosures on the production data for the Stabroek Block.

University of Houston Instructor, Tom Mitro

During an exclusive interview with this newspaper recently, University of Houston Instructor, Tom Mitro, said that this is an absolutely reasonable request on the part of Guyanese.
The official who has more than 30 years experience in the sector said that the normal reporting period for production (and other data) is usually the calendar month.
Mitro explained that companies typically are not required to report production data until after the end of the month.
“And so in this case, Exxon normally would not be required to report production to the government until after the end of December — and usually they have 15 to 30 days after the end of the month to make their report,” the University of Houston Instructor stated.
However, given the significance of this production start to Guyana and the high level anticipation and publicity generated, Mitro said it would be a normal courtesy for ExxonMobil to accelerate its reporting of the numbers to the government sooner than what would normally be required – say during the first week in January.
He said it would then be left to the government to disclose same.
Attorney-at-law, Charles Ramson Jnr., had also told Kaieteur News about the importance of Guyanese having access to this information. Ramson had said that civil society oversight is critical to the management of the sector and the building of trust when it comes to the collection of revenue for the sector.
Ramson had said, “Being in the dark for long periods about the production rates and projections severely constrains the ability of the citizenry to have oversight. Exxon should be submitting this information to the government which should then make this information public.”
The Opposition Member had told Kaieteur News that Guyanese need to know how quickly the company is expected to get to peak production, how the reservoir has been performing since production started, if it has been in keeping with its estimates, and what potential changes it foresees.
In the absence of same, Ramson said that all Guyanese are aware of is the date First Oil kicked off, and the announcement recently that a tanker is in Guyana’s waters to collect ExxonMobil’s entitlement of one million barrels of oil.
The Petroleum Academic’s call for the disclosure of production data would also be in keeping with the requirements of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to which Guyana is a candidacy member.
The EITI body requires its members to ensure disclosures of information/data related to exploration and production, which it believes is key to enabling stakeholders to understand the potential of the sector.