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Govt. welcoming new colonization if it approves Payara – Dr. Mangal
Good Governance Advocate, Dr. Jan Mangal, said that if the new Government approves the Payara project – Exxon’s intended third field development – it would be welcoming a new age of colonization for Guyana.
Former Presidential Advisor on Petroleum, Dr. Jan Mangal
The company had submitted the Field Development Plan (FDP) in the latter half of 2019, even as it already received approval for and is forging ahead with two projects in the Stabroek Block – Liza Phases One and Two.
In a recent Facebook post, Mangal said the third project should not be approved by the new PPP/C Government, at least not until a list of outstanding items is resolved, including a fair contract for the Stabroek Block.
“If the PPP approves the Payara project, then they are actively creating a new colony,” Dr. Mangal said. “They are exploiting the whole country, and forfeiting our future.”
He also said that if they approve the project, “they are saying to Guyanese that they do not care about the people, and they do not care about the country’s wealth.”
“They are saying ‘welcome to the new colonization of Guyana’. We replaced ‘Bookers’ with ‘ExxonMobil’,” he told Kaieteur News.
Bookers, a British business firm, had operated in British Guiana, with sugar plantations being the lifeline of its wealth. The company’s economic power and reach into colonial Guiana’s affairs was so pervasive that the country had sometimes been called ‘Booker’s Guiana’.
To remedy the issues in the Stabroek contract and rebalance the order, Dr. Mangal is of the view that the new PPP/C administration will have to behave very differently than it has previously done while in power.
“Guyana can become a little Switzerland or Singapore,” he said in another post, “strategically situated and always well endowed, where everyone grows and benefits.”
The Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) which governs the operations of ExxonMobil in the Block is so rife with lopsided provisions that Global Witness ascertained that Guyana is set to lose US$55B over the life of the agreement. In addition, the contract effectively ties Guyana to its provisions, as any legislative or other changes made to affect the economics of the agreement would require Guyana to repay Exxon and its partners, Hess Corporation and CNOOC Nexxen for any losses incurred.
Besides the contract, oil production began in December of last year in a country that has not updated or introduced any of the legislation pertinent to the management of the sector, save and except for the Natural Resource Fund Act which is said to stand on shaky legal ground, as it was passed after the former APNU+AFC government was defeated by a No Confidence Motion.
As a result of the Government’s failure to prepare, Guyana finds itself unable to properly oversee and regulate ExxonMobil’s operations, even as the company is already on track to pump 340,000 barrels per day by 2022 from approved projects.
Kaieteur News has since outlined 20 key areas which must be urgently addressed for Guyana to prudently manage the oil sector.
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