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How will shore base be funded?

Apr 12, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

It was reported last week in your paper that Exxon Guyana has contracted to use a shore base being established by private developers at Vreed-en-Hoop. Exxon Guyana is reportedly financing the project. This is a US$600 million project that is in early stages. Transparency and accountability are needed in the arrangement – after all, public money (Exxon Guyana revenues) will be used to rent the base. What is not known and that should be revealed to the public is the arrangement for the construction and ownership of the shore base.

The Guyanese public, as owners of Exxon Guyana, should be informed what, if any, is the role of the state in the funding of the project? Is this a similar arrangement in which private players hardly put in funds and in which government agencies provide the bulk of financing and in which private shareholders, cronies of some government officials, hold majority shares? Is Exxon financing for the project to be billed to the government of Guyana as an expense? If so, does this not constitute the government of Guyana using Exxon as a conduit to finance a huge project of some US$600M for cronies with taxpayers footing the bill? The bottom line is this: Is Exxon Guyana financing the construction of the base or is it paying up front (hundreds of millions of American dollars) for use of the base as it is being constructed? If both of the above is factual, then Exxon Guyana (taxpayers) is actually funding the construction of the base with Guyana government revenues (from sale of oil) with ownership actually belonging to private interests, friends of or those closely connected with government officials.

It would mean that private interests invest little or virtually nothing and would own a US$600M project and would also earn rental income (of tens of millions of American dollars annually) from it. State oil revenues would fund a project and hand it over to a few private individuals – is this accurate?

Is it not a similar government-private arrangement with the Berbice bridge, Marriott, etc., in which government provided the bulk of the funding for construction and the private sector friends of government officials owned the majority shares? Would similar opportunities be made available to other business groups contemplating transformative projects across the country? Can the Vice President or the government or Minister of Finance explain the exact structure and nature of the arrangement between Exxon Guyana and the owners of the new shore base that is yet to begin.

Yours truly,
Mukesh Narine

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