Exxon to Guyana – Don’t worry, trust us

Dec 05, 2021 Editorial

Kaieteur News – ‘Only in Guyana’ is not a cliché anymore, but a confirmed fact of life. Nowhere is this more obvious than in how we manage this oil blessing of ours, which daily assumes all the aspects of a cruel curse. In fact, it is more accurate to say not how we (Guyana) handle this massive oil wealth, but how Exxon manages it for us and, in the process, manages our present and our future. And all the while, every step of the way, how this American oil monster makes rings around us.
Nowhere else in the world could something like this be happening. Specifically, where 3.7 million barrels of offshore discharges could occur daily for some 20 years hence, not too far into the future, and the company doing that mammoth amount of daily offshore discharging sets its own standards, calls its own shots (KN November 30). This is the dangerous, possibly deadly, underbelly of our oil productions that nobody else wants to talk about, are sometimes not even interested in listening to, because it conflicts with their narratives, their ambitions.
“Offshore discharges” represent a clinical term. It is what is a part, the many ingredients, of the 3.7 million barrels dumped daily that brings pausing and recoiling. This can’ be good, by any calculation, any rational thinking, whatever any advocate says. A partial list only points to numerous elements that harbour harm for this country: drill cuttings and fluids; cement; well completion and treatment fluids; produced water; cooling water; sulfate removal, ultra-filtration, and wash water processing brines; topsides drainage; hydrostatic test water; commissioning fluids; ballast water; and blowout preventer testing fluids.
Almost all of those possess some toxic feature, but this is what we are not concerned about, that which we take with a grin on our chin. We are so unconcerned that we do nothing. Truth be told, there is great discomfort and deeper distaste for those few who dare to bring things like these up and shout: Problems and dangers and likely devastations are in the making. It is yet another instance in Guyana of the sincere and truthful and nationalist messenger disliked, even hated. Still, these stories have to be told, these sordid truths revealed, whatever the prices that have to be paid.
Reality is already creeping closer to home, and in a place that hurts. Our fishermen have been complaining continually and bitterly, as they are in agony: they live with circumstances where their catch is declining, where it is not even worth them putting out to sea, so bare it is that they can’t even cover their expenses, gain something for their toils. Fishermen are not a powerful, well-connected constituency in the local population, so there is not much listening to their cries. But they are hurting, and we, the Guyanese consumers, are hurting with them. There is a phrase for these things – it is called collateral damage, or the price of progress. And because we live in a different time, where the best defense is appearing concerned and sincere, and going through the motions, there is another phrase named damage control, which now takes the form of a study to determine if something is really wrong, and how bad it is.
The fate of our fishermen is our first warning of things in the making, and the next 20 years of dumping wastes offshore are sure to bring their own calamities that this small nation is sure to buckle under, from the sheer weight of them all. We are just a small nation, but a land of small men with smaller minds and the smallest particles of truth and integrity in them. This is why an Exxon could get away with what is the equivalent of the premeditated murder of a whole nation, and very few stir into action.
Six years later, and we still have no laws that lay the groundwork of standards that protect us, manage our risks or balance our possibilities. No! we are proud to let Exxon, a voracious corporate predator, if ever there was one, to set standards (safety nets) for Guyana. This is more than playing with fire, and shaking hands with the devil. It is contributing to tragedies.

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