Guyana’s contract with Exxon is capital crime

Jun 28, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Enough can never be said about the one-sided oil contract between Guyana and America’s, ExxonMobil. It is a contract that puts a yoke around the neck of this country and its citizens for generations to come, and squeezes the life out of them, given the stranglehold that Exxon has locked firmly in place.

Instead of waging war against each other, we should be tightening our belts to wage war against Exxon. If it takes getting in the face of Exxon and leaders in our government, then that is what must be.

As more and more Guyanese become more familiar with the terms of this crippling contract, the outrage is slowly building, it is slowly gathering steam, and of this let there be no secret. Guyanese are struggling with the heavy demands of daily life, and some can barely cope, as they are forced to exist on the equivalent of a financial shoestring. As they live like this, they are coming to grips with how much Exxon has this country under lockdown, under its jackboots, and under its whip. In this 21st century, many Guyanese don’t take kindly to this kind of modern-day slavery, contract or no contract.

They read in this paper daily (hear on the radio thrice weekly) of the different ways that Exxon engages in what is nothing less than criminal in this country, while compelling many of our younger men and women to a life of crime on the streets. To take this still further, it is also what causes some of our public servants to help themselves, when they note that the foreigners are coming here, making hay from our wealth, and then fetching it away by the shipload. And this is while some of them are close to the starvation point, and straddle at or below the poverty line.

The latest revelation, through the work of this publication, had to do with something in our oil contract with Exxon that is called a Stabilisation Clause, or more formally, Stabilisation of Agreement (“‘Contract with Exxon makes a mockery of our constitution’ -Yog Mahadeo says deal attempts to shackle our government into more unfair provisions” -KN June 27). Mockery is an understatement and “more unfair provisions” only a beginning in the negative language that could be employed and hurled at both the previous Coalition Government, this present PPP/C Government, and Exxon.

For our part, we at this paper are going to cut to the bone on this, and call this barbarous contract for what it is in still sharper terms. This oil contract is a capital crime, and men ought to be hung for its original existence, and its current continuing existence. It doesn’t make a mockery of our constitution, it conquers our constitution and stuffs it into the biggest garbage bin to be found, and rules over us with an iron fist, and hobnailed boots. That Stabilisation of Agreement that we identified earlier has provisions in it that handcuffs and hogties this country, regardless of which government is in power, or who is the leader at the top.

Though we can write volumes of its criminal clauses, terms and conditions, we will keep it short. What is in the Stabilisation of Agreement holds this society to ransom for decades to come. On the face of it, Guyana can’t move against it. Given its clever and crafty wording, Guyana is prevented from coming to grips with Exxon by changing its laws, or doing anything that would increase the overall costs to Exxon of conducting its oil operations here. For any such thing like that to happen, Exxon has to agree to it beforehand and in writing. This is opening that we have, and we must take the fullest advantage of it, by going for the kill. If the leaders in this government are too slimy, or tricky, or sticky from being in bed with Exxon, then we, the people, must get up and get out to get what represents a better deal for ourselves and our children. If it is confrontation that is called for to deal with and reverse this crime of the last two millennia, then so it must be, Stabilisation of Agreement or not.