Finally, a small victory in our oil fight

Jun 06, 2020 Editorial

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Our headline of June 3rd said it all: “Exxon’s lobbyist bolts from contract to rewrite Guyana’s oil laws.”

At long last, the gods of oil heard our repeated cries over the many injustices placed upon this nation and responded with a little ease. It is an uncustomary retreat for ExxonMobil, and people associated with it. But the stepping away from the contract related to revising our petroleum laws by Hunton Andrews Kurth is not little in any sense, but significant. We say this because firms like Hunton Andrews Kurth do not give ground to an impoverished divided place such as Guyana. Now we must be more watchful and courageous going forward.

Because when a powerhouse law firm in the American oil capital is forced to give up a sweet payday and beat a quick withdrawal in this matter involving the refining of Guyana’s petroleum laws, then it is only giving up something now to get more later. It is the way that multinationals such as ExxonMobil operate, along with law firms and lobbyists on the gravy train, when dealing with underdeveloped places like Guyana.

Guyana has to watch out for any new surprises that seek to exploit us stealthily. For Exxon and its slick hustlers, this is a long chess game, and they think that they can outflank, outsmart, and outlast us. Of key interest now that Exxon has to bounce back with something smother, is what will be its follow-up? And how will Guyanese decision-makers do right this time by Guyana’s waiting populace? We are watching.

Guyana must not continue with its backward position of finalizing its petroleum laws first, and then moving to build its policies on what are our positions for our oil wealth. Our leaders must reverse course and develop our immediate short-term, medium term, and long-term visions to drive associated national oil policies. With those as bases and objectives, we can then commit to redrafting our oil laws. More pointedly: this is what we want from our oil blessing, and these policies must be the basis of oil laws that follow.

Such laws must be ferociously protective of Guyana’s interests for the present generation and future ones. These laws must be about what maximizes Guyana’s pluses, while limiting the draining plans of the many oil predators prowling in our house. They start with Exxon. In the sophisticated thinking of ExxonMobil, Guyana has succeeded in winning a small battle – a skirmish, really – with a big war still to be fought. For certainty, the corporation holds the highest cards, but this does not mean that Guyanese must throw up their hands and roll over without fighting.

Expose, challenge, and fight for Exxon to alter its money-saving strategy on damaging and expensive gas flaring at the wellheads of production. It is damaging because such reckless action injures the atmosphere; it is expensive, because Exxon knows of a cheaper way, with the technology in hand, to manage better and more cleanly. The issue is not why it is not doing so, but that it must be compelled to do so, just like Hunton Andrews Kurth.

This is only a start, with a host of other burning issues which need revisiting and revising. They must be addressed now and not later, when it pleases the big strategists at Exxon and the bigger predators in larger Houston. We register our demands for more sensible cost arrangements for auditing overhead; for costs related to potential oil spills; and for revision of the dirt-poor cheapness in that 2% contract. All of these components stand like bones in the throat of right-thinking Guyanese.

We Guyanese have been taken advantage of by the gougers at ExxonMobil and the willing givers who lead Guyana. As we ready for reemergence and renewal from our long national lockdown and our ugly, brutalizing electoral process, we stand committed to the vision and calling for a better, wiser, and more prosperous Guyana. It must be a better political Guyana, and in this we will hold the feet of all our leaders to the highest heat and brightest light of scrutiny and exposure, where necessary. There will be no exceptions, no friends, no untouchables.

We alert them to be forewarned from now: do the right thing with this oil of ours. Similarly, we promise to give and do whatever it takes-time, energy, resources-to shine the sharpest lights on ExxonMobil and its deceptions and rip-offs, while we fight to get as much as we could from our oil. ExxonMobil must deal with Guyanese honestly; it has not done so yet. This world power of a corporation (and hangers-on) must be exposed and shamed. We look for a true partner, not a devious predator.

Our message is simple: we will challenge any goliath, whether from Guyana, or in Houston. We will do our duty to our brethren. We demand that they do similarly.

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