Keith Rowley setting the stage for Guyanese leaders

Jun 03, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Trinidad and Tobago is determined to get as much as it can from whatever it has got left in its oil and gas sector. The man leading the way is Keith Rowley (“Trini PM vows to conduct comprehensive review of oil and gas tax regime -wants petroleum profits tax, a supplemental petroleum tax, better royalty for all onshore, shallow water, deepwater projects” KN June 1). Now that is a leader who means business and has signaled all comers to his country that this is what to expect, for this is the way that it is going to be. Take it or leave it, come to Trinidad on our terms, or not at all.
This is the kind of talk, the type of action, we are hoping to hear from our own Guyanese leaders, and then see them commit to the related follow-up action to get the level of returns due to us from the inception of our oil and gas discoveries. The problem is that not one of our leaders in Guyana is manifesting the slightest inclination to go in the direction which the Trini PM is pursuing with vigor and determination.

Our political leaders in Guyana are more excited and energized to continue the squabbling and squalling with one another, while the foreign oil companies run amok in our oilfields and cart away our wealth. They prefer to fight each other over ancient feuds without letup, and waste their energies that would be much better utilized fighting the foreigners to get more for us.
In the meantime, PM Rowley laid out the specifics of his vision this week in his feature address, as to what the future of the oil and gas sector in his twin island republic should be. It is as our headline says and the details of which are in our accompanying strapline. Dr. Rowley is talking about exploration everywhere, and about increased tax regimes under varying scenarios, but which all have one common denominator for citizens of Trinidad and Tobago: more money, which means more benefits for the now strapped twin-island country.
To emphasise where Dr. Rowley is going, we share this extract from his speech: “Unrealized potential is of no value to anyone, not to the resource owners that are the people of Trinidad and Tobago, or to interested investors if that resource remains out of reach, undeveloped or unexploited.” That was very well said, and we hope that our own leaders are listening, and would be motivated by a kindred CARICOM leader’s spirit to take a page out of his book, or kiss goodbye to potential. Only positives could come from such attitudes and visions.
Here, leaders have done things that are detrimental to the interests of Guyanese, and they have done so repeatedly and without any speck of self-respect. As evidence of this posture of ours, we put the Liza-1 Permit renewal before the Guyanese public. It speaks for itself as to how national leaders have misled us by not seizing precious, rare opportunities to level the playing field to some extent in Guyana’s favor. When they haven’t dragged their feet, they have outright deceived the people of this country with one promise after another going unfulfilled.
The leaders in the previous Coalition Administration left us in shambles with what has to be one of the shabbiest oil deals in history, while the leaders in today’s PPP/C Government made fiery speeches about Guyana getting the “wrong end of the stick” and of the vital importance of revisiting and “renegotiating” the lopsided oil contract. They have talked up a streak, which is easy to do because talk is cheap, and something every cheap leader is very good at doing. The devastating result for Guyanese is that leaders in the PPPC Government did the talk, but now they are too feeble and frightened to walk the talk.
This is where the foreign oil companies, as led by ExxonMobil, have them. Even when PPPC Government leaders have a hand that gives them a chance at winning something for Guyana, they throw in their cards in quick, shaky surrender. In Trinidad, Rowley readies to wage war. In Guyana, PPPC Government leaders give up the ghost, run for cover.

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