Latest update March 11th, 2025 7:33 AM
One year later, VP Jagdeo fails to disclose monthly oil reports publicly
– No excuse will absolve the Govt. of this grave sin against the nation – Patterson
Kaieteur News – It has been 14 months since Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has failed to honour his promise to have monthly oil production reports publicly disclosed. This newspaper had reported Dr. Jagdeo giving members of the media this commitment on Monday, February 8, 2021 during a press conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo
The official had said on that occasion, “So there is a daily report from ExxonMobil – the producers – to the Ministry and I think it’s shared with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)… I don’t see anything secret about this. It’s no big deal. It’s just that maybe they have not done this.”
He added, “I’m gonna talk to them to ensure that you get it, the monthly statements because this is not secret information.”
Following the Vice President’s commitment, not a single report has been made public. Upon noting this, Opposition Member, David Patterson said the government cannot offer any excuse which can absolve it from this grave sin against the nation.
The Shadow Minister for the Oil and Gas sector in an invited comment to Kaieteur News said, “No one buys a bottle of water that is not full, because you can see through the container.
: Opposition Member, David Patterson
No one buys fruits from our local vendors if the product is visibly damaged. However, if you buy a bottle of cooking gas, you cannot see if you are getting value unless the bottle is weighed on a standard scale, or unless you believe the seal has been properly set and has not been tampered with. This is what the government is asking our nation to accept, a product from a supplier without verification.”
Patterson added, “There have been repeated public requests for the Ministry of Natural Resources to provide the daily production information for the oil we are paying Exxon to explore for, to drill for, to store and mostly to sell for us. To date, there is still no information. There are no figures to perform analysis on, no production data which can be tabulated with the corresponding oil prices to ensure that we are receiving value for our oil.”
Patterson said Guyanese, the main stakeholder in all of this, remain in ignorance and cannot check or verify the sporadic information, which they receive about oil production offshore from Exxon and its partners.
He opined that this lack of transparency dominates the PPP/C’s activities in the oil and gas sector where the oil production licences are also shrouded in secrecy and quite frankly characterises its activities in general. Patterson said this state of affairs should be concerning for all stakeholders wherever they may be.
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