Oil and gas jamboree

Feb 20, 2022 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

Encouraging Events, Disturbing Developments…

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – The disturbing came to Guyana. Real people to talk seriously about oil that is now real for Guyana. The only thing real about our oil is that it is out there under the seabed. Exxon’s Southern contingent visited its prime plantation, surveyed the minions it has in place for local leaders, and had to be happy. It was all happy talk – for them, and their enthralled listeners. Rich opportunities for local businesses and local content which must line up and bow down to ride the wave of oil prosperity. It is a towering one. But here is the crux and the catch; for them only. That is, ExxonMobil, Hess, the Chinese, and the lesser oil fry, such as Tullow and Repsol (remember Peru, Guyanese), plus the domestic predators – political, commercial, civil, social, spiritual- those Guyanese snakes pretending as saviours.
All of this disturbs beyond description, because unlike most Guyanese here and abroad, I know the people I speak of so scornfully. I lived with them, worked with them, even slept with them. Not the ones in the street, but those in the halls and heights where they plot and conspire. Strategising and synergising were part of the corporate bible then, which I got to study close up, with numerous lessons learned. Those are what I observe being put to work in this Guyana of mine, this oil plantation, with its many slaveholdings. Exxon’s assets include prostrate political leaders, who couldn’t save their own skins if they wanted to (they don’t); couldn’t salvage some residential patriotic honour if they ever had such (they never did); and couldn’t do any beneficial thing for Guyanese, even if they so wished (Guyanese have never been so fortunate). Other Guyanese slaveholdings of Exxon, incorporate the private sector bound hands and feet to their addictions with prosperity and money, which makes them dear to the hearts of Exxon’s leaders. If local private sector scoundrels assembled at this bright oil and gas carnival have to break the hearts of their less attached, less favoured, fellow citizens, then that is too bad; part of the problem with collateral damage, which is all that ordinary Guyanese count for in this fabled oil age that is supposedly theirs. My thinking is that they should all be run out of town, then into the ground, such buzzards these foreigners and local conspirators are.
For there was the esteemed one of Exxon, Mr. Woods, worshipped and fawned over by pathetic Guyanese. Our even more esteemed leader was recruited to spearhead the homages piled on the man, company, and work. His handiwork need no introduction. It is: full insurance coverage -NO! Renegotiation of criminal oil contract – get out of there, get out of my face. This is the kind of people at that oil and gas extravaganza (the Mafia call it a sit down) that was feted and fallen over, while they tore out our lungs and guts and spine. Look closely at Guyana’s leaders, and they were an exercise in good ole- fashioned kowtowing and scraping the mud from their knees. They left the spittle of foreigners on their faces, as a mark of honour, as evidence of being near oil divinity.
No wonder they sell Guyanese out. I wonder, too, how much it cost Exxon to buy them over, which couldn’t be much, so cheap they are. Their 30 pieces of silver is nothing to Exxon, and that is literal. For the company’s financial craftsmen will find ways to cover the cost of corrupting local leaders (political operators, chamber of commerce performers, and others) by mixing it up with bills submitted. Guyana is severely exposed without full insurance coverage, and our leaders are consumed by how much cash Exxon exposes to them (for themselves). It is the same nasty, sickly story of local leaders who bartered oil and independence for elections victory, and now are dismissed as having no more importance than impotent bystanders.
Guyanese leaders were very much present at the conference, but were nothing but figures of stone, and the sewerage that flows from their twisted lips. Yeah – Darren Woods came, he saw, he conquered. Leaders look like the slaves they are. They say they are Guyanese.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)