Exxon’s billboard

Dec 07, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Anyone taking a look at the billboard that ExxonMobil erected over the Demerara Harbor Bridge would walk away with the solid impression that Guyanese are the luckiest people in the world. There needs to be a correction of that misimpression. From the numbers alone highlighted in gleaming, eye-catching electronic writing, many would conclude that Guyana lucked out again in having an oil partner like ExxonMobil. In that particular regard, nothing could be more distant from the truth. And, as history and statistics have reminded us time and again, there are other truths, inconvenient ones, in the statements of deceptively clever people that say so much, but leave out much more.

It sounds like a lion’s share, that $280B which, according to ExxonMobil, Guyana received in the matter of three short years. It is an indication of the slickness, and the trickiness, of the people at the American oil supergiant that they now employ Guyanese dollars to tell the world of how generous the company has been to Guyanese. What is left out, what not many beyond the Region know, is that a single American dollar exchanges for approximately two hundred Guyana dollars (US$1:GY$200). Guyana received just over US$1 billion in its oil fund in a US bank, which ExxonMobil was tricky enough to convert to local dollars to swell the heads of Guyanese, and help them look kindly on the rapacious American company. After all, $280 billion blows the mind, when compared to one billion US dollars. Another side issue that ExxonMobil was sensible not to propagandize to naïve Guyanese concerns its record shattering profits, a significant portion of which is driven by cheap, high quality Guyana oil.

Regarding that part of ExxonMobil’s beautiful, inspiring oil story it took great care not to include in its billboard over the Demerara Harbor Bridge. The company’s profiting on the backs of the people of this country, and with the fullest collaborating of craven local politicians, is not for inclusion and publication in that lovely billboard. Unsurprisingly, it is not a matter for Guyanese consumption. The billboard sparkles with the juicy and the spicy: 52% of all profits from the [staggeringly rich] Stabroek Block, and 2% royalty. It is a Third World dream, the yearnings of generations, come true. Again, the prime cuts from ExxonMobil’s billboard are not mentioned at all.

The same 2% royalty was what it used to recover in its costs submitted to Guyana, until that sleight of hand was discovered and corrected. If ExxonMobil would stoop so low as to take back (recover) part of the measly 2% royalty that is unequalled anywhere in the world, then it doesn’t call for too much wisdom to appreciate what it could possibly be doing with its billions in expenses. We at this publication take the position that in the maze and mountain that is tens of billions in expenses; there is plenty of room for ExxonMobil to extract another huge undetected profit, of which Guyana is totally at sea. This has been the history of oil companies, especially in poor, ill-equipped countries that are cursed with weak, compromised Politicians. ExxonMobil has its own pungent reputation for operating in such dark corners, where dirty tricks are practiced.

As the contents of ExxonMobil’s billboard are absorbed, we recall history. The slave masters used to sing a song of how good the slaves had it, how happy they are, because of how well their masters took care of them. The African slaves in chains got Christianity, while Guyanese citizens living in mental slavery got democracy. The people at ExxonMobil are nothing if not astute. They chose one of the well-travelled miles in Guyana, the Demerara Harbor Bridge to broadcast, emphasize, and reemphasize their message. ExxonMobil has dealt with Guyana lavishly; ExxonMobil has been good for Guyanese. In addition, the American oil monstrosity is strategic: the citizens its target audience, the residents on the other side of the river, is reminded until all are glazed in the eye, of how much the new colonizer, ExxonMobil, has done for them. It counts come elections season.

Guyanese coexist with a one-sided oil contract. ExxonMobil continues with its billboard, the usual one-sided story it has perfected.

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