Clyde and Co. report is enough to push for renegotiation

Clyde and Co. report is enough to push for renegotiation – Ram

Jan 22, 2021 News

Despite Global Witness report scrapped…

Attorney-at-Law and anti-corruption advocate, Christopher Ram.

Kaieteur News – Anti-corruption watchdog Global Witness recently rescinded its damning Signed Away report detailing how a poor negotiation process and questionable behaviour by government officials had led to the inking of a lopsided oil deal with an Exxon-led consortium for operations in Guyana’s lucrative Stabroek block.
But even with this report withdrawn, Attorney-at-Law and anti-corruption advocate, Christopher Ram is of the belief that the Clyde and Co. report has enough weight to push for the renegotiation of the Stabroek Block deal.
During a recent panel discussion on Guyana’s 2021 priorities for the oil sector, Ram described the Clyde and Co report as “even more damning that the Global Witness report” and is one that should have already been used to push for renegotiation.
“Whilst Global Witness disappointed us, what is still available is the Clyde Report that is even more damming and did no justice to those who were involved in the deal,” Ram highlighted in his presentation.
The anti-corruption advocate noted too, that he expected the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration to put as priority a review of the Stabroek Block agreement using the Clyde and Co report.
But the PPP/C made no move along this direction despite the deal being fraught with numerous provisions which leave the country open for abuse.
When the Global Witness report was released, then Natural Resource Minister, Raphael Trotman quickly announced that the previous Coalition regime hired British law firm Clyde and Co to conduct an independent investigation on the circumstances surrounding the signing of the 2016 Stabroek licence.
The firm had been provided with the drafts of the 2016 agreement exchanged between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Exxon’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) and made several revelations.
Chief among them was that the negotiation of improved terms for Guyana led by the former Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman in the 2016 agreement was not a priority for the Government.
Clyde and Co analyzed the points of agreement raised by each side.
While Government did make efforts to propose improved terms, the report posited that the consortium was not receptive of its proposals. Nevertheless, Government wanted to get the negotiations over with, in a short period.
Clyde and Co. found that the negotiations were limited, taking place over just the course of a month.
While the Government could have approached the situation differently, through extensive negotiations on the agreement’s terms with a view of improving them, the authors of the report wrote “such an approach was not in the forefront of the Government’s mind.”
What the Government prioritised, according to Clyde and Co, was ensuring a continuity of its relationship with the Contractor consortium, ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC. Because of that, the Global Witness report pointed out that Guyana lost US$55 billion over the life of the agreement and urged for renegotiation.

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