Vincent Adams puts some cards on the table

Aug 04, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Guyanese born, Dr. Vincent Adams, former Head of this nation’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is calling out some people in no uncertain terms. A recent letter he wrote in this paper laid a few of his cards on the table. They should have lasting value for all Guyanese, especially our leaders in the PPP/C Government and the Coalition APNU+AFC Opposition.

He has given them much live ammunition, and some food for deep thought. ExxonMobil, the American oil giant, now striding across this country’s stage like the colossus that it is, must be mad as hell. In his letter, Dr. Adams spoke well of ExxonMobil’s prior local chief, Rod Henson, and he was the last of the oilmen that earned that distinction. Though lifelong oilmen, most of the rest, be they from Texas or elsewhere, fall neatly into the category of the title of that sensational novel penned by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, which was titled, The Ugly American. According to Dr. Adams, Mr. Henson was tough to deal with, as hard as they come, but a respected adversary with some flexibility in him. Apparently for the bigshots back in ExxonMobil’s high command, he wasn’t tough enough, and he was too willing to exercise that quality that makes for a sound, working partnership-flexibility. Flexibility and openness to negotiate honestly is too dangerous to the interests of the rapacious oil company.

Flexing is not part of ExxonMobil’s playbook or game plan. So, it was out with Mr. Henson, and in with Messrs. Alistair Routledge and Mike Ryan.

In cinematic terms, which the governors at ExxonMobil are sure to appreciate, they recalled Gregory Peck, and sent in John Wayne and Clint Eastwood to lay down the law to the natives in Guyana. To their credit, both Mr. Routledge and Mr. Ryan have lived up to their all-business, don’t-mess-with Exxon mentality, aura, and practices. New Country Head Alistair Routledge said that this was what the law (according to ExxonMobil) is going to be, through what was the equivalent of 7-point plan, as outlined in Adams’s letter (“Exxon’s Ryan “eye pass the people of Guyana” -KN August 3^rd). As we understand it, can only conclude from it, Alistair Routledge came to Guyana armed with an ultimatum, and it was ‘take it or leave it.’ The man came to Guyana geared for war, and Mr. Mike Ryan was only too delighted to perform his role as warrior.

The promise was that gas flaring would be for a day, which has turned out to be the eternity of three years. Just like the fixing of a gas compressor which never seems to be completely and successfully fixed, with every manner of rosy promise made. It is the same Mr. Ryan who boasted about “achieving background flaring within a record 60 days” which is something that should stand up in the evidence of supporting data. ExxonMobil’s answer, via Mike Ryan, was to give Guyanese, government leaders and ordinary citizens, the middle finger. Interestingly, Mr. Ryan has found it better to “dodge questions” related to this issue. More revealingly, ExxonMobil’s people in Guyana have settled for the widespread official Guyanese practice of secrecy, in that the data is no longer published since last year.

This is the company, and these are the kinds of officials, operating in Guyana and asking locals to trust them both. Other Guyanese are free to exercise that right, we at this publication tried hard, but we can’t find a single gram of trust to spare for either ExxonMobil’s chiefs in America, or the ones they have here putting their knees on the necks of Guyanese.

Thanks to Dr. Adams’s writing, overall safety, safe production limits, oil spill security, and ExxonMobil’s empty boasts are mostly things which we now can all mock. ExxonMobil’s greed and voracity is never better expressed than in the $35 that the company makes whenever it pays a dollar to passive and grateful Guyanese for flaring. There was utter scorn for the groveling posture embedded in Guyana’s leader’s words that dealing with ExxonMobil is like dealing with a superpower. Which Guyanese can trust ExxonMobil? How is it that PPP/C Government leaders only see good in dealing with these robber barons?

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