PPP Candidate signs off ‘independent’ draft for Exxon’s EIA

Nov 17, 2021 News

…consultant claims it was a mistake

Kaieteur News – Despite the clear-cut requirement by law for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of oil giant Exxon Mobil’s Yellowtail Project to be produced by an independent organization, the draft document was co-signed by PPP candidate in the 2020 elections, Shyam Nokta, thereby sparking questions with regards to the credibility of the document.

Managing Director, Environmental Management Consultants, Shyam Nokta

During the Consultative session of the Yellowtail project, hosted by the local Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and consultancy firm Environmental Resources Management (ERM) and Exxon’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), Environmentalist Simone Mangal-Jolly highlighted this flaw, even as she questioned the legitimacy of the document.
She argued, “The EIA document introduction says that the study is produced by an independent body and, in fact, the Environmental Protection Act requires this. However, it is cosigned by Mr. Shyam Nokta who as you are aware” has a close relationship to “the governing party. He was on the Party’s list of candidates for the 2020 General and Regional Elections. As far as we in Guyana know, we have elected this Party…to govern Guyana. How is it that this can be an independent EIA when there is a clear link to the highest level of power in the governing party?”
Ms. Mangal-Jolly further noted that the EIA document never referenced a conflict of interest and that there was also no explanation of how such a conflict was addressed in the production of work.
“Can this EIA qualify as independent and can the EPA be considered as acting independently of the government that supervises it directly?” she questioned.
In response to Mangal-Jolly’s concerns, ERM representative, Jason Wiley, explained that Nokta’s signature was, indeed, on a draft version of the Non-Technical Study (NTS) and even though his data was used in the production of the EIA, his company was not directly involved.
“Mr. Nokta’s signature was on a draft version of the NTS that got posted by mistake. We apologize for that. His company was involved in some of the studies that were conducted previously, not as part of this EIA. We did use that data in this EIA, but his company was not directly involved in this EIA. Again we apologize for that confusion,” he stated.
Wiley said his understanding is that a new version of the NTS has been posted on the EPA’s website without Shyam’s signature.
Also jumping to the defence of the party affiliate was the Executive Director of the EPA, Kemraj Parsram. According to him, a list of approved Consultants was provided by the developer, which was examined by the Agency and found that Nokta’s company, Environmental Management Consultants EMC was not listed.
“A list was provided by the developer and we examined that list and clearly Mr. Nokta or EMC is not or was not on that list, so he is not part of this list of Consultants that we have approved. I think if you look at the EIA itself, there should be the list of Consultants who actually conducted this,” he said.