Fill up those boats

Mar 13, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The truth of that Guyanese saying is underlined again: mouth open, story jump out. For there was a mover and shaker from Exxon doing the talking and confirming the direction to where things are heading for the company in Guyana (“Our objective is to fill up those boats -Exxon’s VP says objective is to produce more, faster in Guyana” -KN March 7). The numbers give an indication of how quickly Exxon is going, and how quickly Guyana is falling behind to get more from its own oil.
The man doing the talking for Exxon is Neil Chapman, one of its Senior Vice Presidents. Like Guyana’s own Vice President, when Mr. Chapman speaks, people listen. Guyanese had better listen up, for what is now already in the works is how much Exxon is intensifying its production drive in this country. There is no slowing it down, not even for the briefest of pauses. Certainly, not for Guyanese leaders and the Guyanese people to get a grip on what is happening with the oil under their seas.
Exxon is set to ramp up production from a staggering million barrels a day in 2027 to 1.2 million barrels daily in that same year. We have gone from zero to a hundred in less than the span of a whole decade, from first oil just the other day, to the first million in a few short years ahead. Yet, we are now in the same way, a largely left behind people, and looks highly likely to be in almost the exact same place by 2027. That is, other than for political leaders and their cronies making much money (on the side) while Exxon runs away with the oil.
Here we will be in 2027, a member of the oil club elite, and the great majority of Guyanese are lagging in a kind of no man’s land. On the one hand, they have all these hopes, while on the other, there are all these disappointments. There are all these government and commercial leaders making money hand over fist, while they the people to whom the nation’s oil wealth belong are left to scratch out a living on minimum wages that cover less and less, and leave them naked and bitter.
As Exxon realises its stated objectives as its senior man said, which is “to fill up those boats” we hope that the eyes of Guyanese are fully opened to what is going on under their noses. Fill up those boats means the filling up of the pockets of the people attached to Exxon at the expense of passive and disengaged Guyanese.
The executives at Exxon will reap a treasure trove of cash. The big investors and other smaller shareholders will read of and celebrate sweet returns from their cash and trust placed in the company and its management.
For their silence and sordid sellouts of Guyana’s oil to America’s Exxon, the political leaders of Guyana (PPP/C and PNC and AFC) have and will continue to benefit monetarily that many of them wouldn’t have thought possible. Fill up those boats is both boast and bludgeon. The former is to reassure Exxon’s workers and investors and watchers. The latter is to call out and compel Guyanese leaders, who tied dirty treacherous bundles with Exxon, to do their all to ensure that nothing and no one gets in the way of slowing down the drive for more barrels of oil to be produced daily by 2027.
As greater numbers of Guyanese get a better understanding of what is really going on with the nation’s oil, more of them grow angrier by the day. This is causing the people at Exxon some uneasiness since they do not want anything to cloud their vision of more production from Guyana’s wells. When people rail against a toothless and spineless local EPA, Exxon watches how the President and Vice President run interference, by fulfilling their first responsibilities, which are to Exxon, not Guyana. When Guyanese come out in the streets to protest against oil crimes and leadership oil obscenities, Exxon expects local leaders to take care of business. Nothing must prevent Exxon in its rapid quest “to fill up those boats.”

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