VP Jagdeo was callously misleading on ‘The Glenn Lall Show’ – former EPA Head

Sep 18, 2022 News

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…invites him, Exxon to discuss facts with nation

By Davina Bagot

Kaieteur News – Former Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams believes that Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has done Guyana a great disservice by sharing a number of “falsehoods” pertaining to the oil and gas sector, when he appeared on a national radio programme, ‘The Glenn Lall Show’, last Tuesday evening.

To correct the “misleading” positions shared by the VP, Dr. Adams has invited Jagdeo to a one-on-one discussion, where he said the inaccuracies could be corrected once and for all. In fact, the former EPA boss said that he is even willing to facilitate US oil giant, ExxonMobil where Jagdeo could alternatively “sit back and learn in the discussion”.

Dr. Vincent Adams was keen to note that his intent is not to engage in a back and forth but rather to use his knowledge to help educate Guyana. According to him, “I have a lot of respect for the Office of the Vice President so it’s very difficult for me to bring myself to believe that the Vice President would be so demeaning to that high office, to be so callously misleading his people. So I am gonna give him the benefit of the doubt that it’s just that he’s being misled or being misinformed or not having capable people to inform him and to advise him and I think our people deserves much, much better. So what I would like to do, I am going to put out a proposal to the honourable Vice President- I would like to invite the Vice President – one on one- to have a discussion before the public, anytime, anyplace, and this is not to show him up or anything else.”

Dr. Adams has a PhD in Environmental Engineering and is a PhD Candidate in Petroleum and Geological Engineering. He also holds a MS in Petroleum and Geological Engineering, MS in Geohydrology, BS in Civil/Public Health Engineering, and Diploma in Executive Leadership and Management from MIT Sloan School of Business.

The specialist acquired 30 years of service in the US Department of Energy (DOE) and was serving as the Executive Director of the local EPA before the incumbent administration terminated his service.

On Friday, during an Alliance for Change (AFC) Press Conference, he explained, “I was really astounded by the number of falsehoods, and you can go back and check. These are things that have been ongoing in the media so I don’t know how the Vice President could have missed it by such a distance.”

He listed at least six instances where he believes Jagdeo was misleading to the Guyanese public during the interview with Kaieteur News publisher, Mr. Glenn Lall.

EEPGL not Guyanese

Flagging his first observation, Dr. Adams pointed out that the Vice President during the show said five times that Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) – a subsidiary of ExxonMobil – was registered in Guyana.

However, the former EPA head said it was disappointing to listen to Jagdeo, who is running the oil sector, be so misleading on information that can easily be verified with a quick Google search. “The Vice President who supposed to be in charge of managing EEPGL doesn’t even know that EEPGL is registered in the Bahamas and not in Guyana and he is so confident like he always does…EEPGL is the limited liability company owned by Exxon – it’s not owned by the three companies, its owned by Exxon.”

He went on to explain that just on August 31, last, he wrote a letter to the Editor where he addressed this specific matter where EEGPL has been paying taxes to its home office in the Bahamas amounting to US$2.2 billion which is more than three times the total of the approximate US$600 million oil money Guyana received during the same period.

In that letter, Dr. Adams said he went on to question Exxon why it chose to register EEPGL in the Bahamas and pay taxes there for nothing when it is Guyana that the company should be showing gratefulness to, for resuscitating the company.

Full liability coverage

“Secondly, Mr. Jagdeo finally, and I almost fell out of my chair, admitted when he was asked about full liability coverage, he admitted that it’s in all four of the permits. He proudly said that as if, well he or the PPP/C was the one that put it in there, well folks please let me inform Mr. Jagdeo again, and you need to inform him that it was the Coalition that put the language in there that he so proudly read. Matter of fact, he jumped on (his) cell phone and he read out the same clauses that I have been writing about and talking about in the press before you folks every single time,” the expert pointed out.

However, he made it explicit that accepting the requirement was not the issue but rather the fact that Government has been allowing Exxon to not comply with the legal requirements of the Permits. To this end, the former EPA Head said it would be prudent for the Vice President to explain why he is allowing the operators to carry out their activities without complying with the full liability coverage requirement.

He explained, “It is a simple letter to say anything over and above that insurance, the parent company – which is Exxon and the other two – will be covering that cost. Why are they so afraid?”

Dr. Adams noted too that essentially the Vice President has been “boiling down” liability coverage by attempting to cap the guarantee at a mere US$2 billion. As such, he stressed, “How could he with a straight face say that they are strengthening environmental oversight but you are reducing unlimited liability coverage or full coverage liability from the parent company?”

He went on to remind that a spill in Mexico amounted to US$70 billion while Guyana is only looking to secure a US$2 billion parent company guarantee.

Water treatment

On another point, the environmental engineer explained that Mr. Jagdeo also said during ‘The Glenn Lall Show’ that the PPP is now for the first time ensuring that the oil company treats the produced water on board the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels.

According to him, “That’s a blatant lie. As a matter of fact I would be offended and feel very nervous if I was Exxon to say that they were not treating the water before this Government came into office.  That’s a requirement. It’s an international requirement that you have to remove oil. It’s not full treatment but you have to. When oil comes up it brings up water with it. It’s an international requirement that you treat the water to remove the oil, not the other stuff, the toxic materials. To remove the water and you cannot dump any water without a certain concentration of oil.”

As such, Dr. Adams made it clear that the treatment of produced water has been occurring since the startup of operations in 2019.

Cradle to Grave waste management

Another issue that the former EPA boss sought to bring clarity to was the issue of Cradle to Grave waste management.   He said, “The other thing that he talks about all the time is this cradle to grave, I don’t know if it’s because it rolls off his tongue very nicely, cradle to grave. Well I don’t think the Vice President even knows what cradle to grave is. The person who introduced it, and this is not about bragging because that was my responsibility to introduce my knowledge to the nation, I was the one who introduced cradle to grave. I was the one who directed Exxon to have a cradle to grave policy and all that meant is that every single ounce of waste that is generated on the ships, Exxon is responsible for it until its final disposition, through treatment and disposal.”

On this note, he explained that Exxon was formerly generating its raw waste and dumping it over to a treatment facility where the company’s responsibility would end. However, “I said absolutely not, that has to stop, you are responsible for that waste from the time you generate it…so he’s bragging about water treatment, he’s bragging about cradle to grave and it’s just blatant untruths.”

Flaring

When it comes to flaring of natural gas, Dr. Vincent Adams said the Vice President seems excited to take credit for introducing a fee for flaring. However, the environmental engineer argued that the introduction of this policy has turned all environmental principles upside down.

He explained, “The Clause that you (Jagdeo) added, meaning your Government, after I left which gave Exxon the ability to flare as much as they want, as long as they can pay for it, now that turns any environmental principals on top of its head, because you may as well don’t have an EPA if you can pay to pollute.”

Dr. Adams added, “If as long as I can pay to pollute I don’t have to worry, then maybe you only have to have a Ministry of Finance where everybody goes in and say I’m going to pollute ‘x’ number of tonnes per week and here is the fee that I am gonna pay for it.”

He said under the previous Government, Exxon’s operations were capped for flaring, after they were given a certain time to fix their faulty equipment. In fact, he explained that the production levels had decreased from 100,000 barrels per day to about 25,000 barrels to cut back on the harmful emissions.

“So this flaring thing is a gimmick so he needs to stop talking about it. It’s embarrassing and it doesn’t make any sense to be bragging about collecting a fee when that is not part of an environmental principle,” he contended.

Environmental oversight

While the Vice President believes that his party has made strides to improve environmental oversight in the petroleum sector, Dr. Adams holds the view that this could not be further from the facts.

He said, “How can you say you have improved environmental rigour when you abandoned the 36-member unit at the EPA that we had developed with the World Bank? The World Bank gave us US$1 million, they brought in an expert, we sat there, we put together a plan with a 36-member unit highly skilled, not any and everybody, highly skilled petroleum engineers, geological engineers, safety folks so that you can go one on one and we have as much power on our side as they (Exxon) have, to have 24/7 coverage on the ship itself.”

Because Guyana still does not have this type of oversight capacity, the former EPA head explained that the country is yet to know what really caused the recent oil spill that occurred and whether one barrel of crude was indeed spilled or more.

 

 

 

 

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