Oil companies and honouring responsibilities

Aug 28, 2021 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The State of Louisiana along America’s Gulf Coast has a problem. Louisiana’s severe environmental problem poses significant risks to its coastal communities, as reported in a Washington Post article, and shared with Guyanese under the title, “In Louisiana, oil companies seek bankruptcy, sells assets to evade cleanup bill” (KN August 8). Our fear is that what is happening in Louisiana could occur in Guyana, with dire consequences to this poor nation.
In a prior editorial “How the real Exxon operates” KN July 19, we used a Wall Street Journal article as basis, to enlighten readers how big-name, deep pocketed oil companies drain places of oil riches, then pack their bags, and leave the garbage and costly headaches behind for the locals to cleanup. Now, the Washington Post story go to lengths in revealing the rate of coastline loss, impacts on communities, and the reactions of the private oil companies and the overseeing Federal government. In sum, companies have not been held accountable, and the public is left holding the huge costly bag.
Chevron, BP, and Shell are oil companies with a global reach and footprint. In their time, each explored, discovered, produced, and reaped rich results from oil finds in the Gulf of Mexico. To produce the oil, the three companies dug canals “through the wetlands to build and service pipelines.” As should be expected, it is an extensive network of canals laced with pipelines, which inflicted two dangers and disasters on Louisiana. The first is that the canals opened pathways for saltwater to flow into the marshes, which accelerated the spreading coastal erosion; while the second, is that the spider webs of oil pipelines “are hindering the solution.”
There is a third problem meaning, that BP, Chevron, and Shell which own the pipelines do not want to be saddled with the responsibility to decommission the pipelines. All three companies are seeking protection from Federal Bankruptcy courts to evade their obligations, now that the fields have been fully exploited. The obligations to decommission the oil infrastructure is a costly one, and to the tune of US$9 billion. It is one that BP, Chevron, and Shell are determined not to pay, which is why they are selling assets and seeking bankruptcy protection, so as to shirk footing the multibillion-dollar decommissioning bill.
For its part, the Federal government, which has oversight responsibility in these matters, has also been a shirker in enforcing the rules and regulations in place. Agency after agency have been slow in drawing the line, with the result is that powerful corporate oil behemoths collect the sweetness of oil production, and having drained that dry, they leave the bitterness of costly decommissioning behind. In the end, when all the foot-dragging and finger pointing have been exhausted, all roads end up at one place: the public pays, meaning taxpayers are held to ransom, with oil fortunes gone.
We took the time to lay this out to illustrate the power of oil companies, their rapacious and self-serving culture, and the collaboration of willing governments made weak by oil lobby, oil money, and well-placed oil assets, human and otherwise. If this can happen in America, the odds are higher that it can happen in Guyana. That is, where the poor and strapped Guyanese taxpayers are left holding the bag to take care of the detritus (garbage) that Exxon and others leave behind. We are not comforted, and no Guyanese should be, with the US$220M to be reserved by 2024 by Exxon to cover decommissioning costs. This is with good reason, on which we now expand.
Exxon has not been straight up in its dealing with this country (costs). Exxon has not been fair with this country (contract). Exxon has not partnered honestly with Guyanese, but has manipulated and controlled Guyana’s political leaders (gas-to-shore). Exxon has not been clear and convincing on environmental best practices (flaring). Exxon has not been a trusted partner, but a shady conspirator with political leaders and private sector cum civil society operators. Because of all this, Guyana sits on potential environmental problems, of which it does not know, and seem not to care. After all, the taxpayers will always absorb the bills, just like in the United States.

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Oil companies and honouring responsibilities

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