Where else in the world does a Government operate like this?

Dec 25, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – It is becoming more obvious that we do things in reverse order in this country. It is as if we make plans to build a house, and actually start the project before those responsible for approving the project plans give the green light to do so. Or, we have a risky business moving full speed ahead, and only then begin to make a determined effort to obtain some level of insurance coverage. This has been the story and the standard of what has been happening with our management of the nation’s oil business.

Guyanese own this oil asset, but from all indications, it is as if they don’t count, and are reduced to helpless bystanders, totally ignored. Guyana’s Politicians, the ones vested with the power, come across as impotent, conspiratorial, or working against the best interests of the citizens when their leadership of this valuable oil sector is analyzed. Foreigners reap rich benefits from Guyana’s oil, while the Guyanese people are left to suck air, and wonder if they will ever get their rightful share, the right degree of representation, and the right package of results with this great natural resource endowment that is gifted to them.

The latest foreign group to strike it rich from Guyana’s oil is French. France’s Vallourec has just signed up with ExxonMobil to supply tens of thousands of metric tons of pipeline and another couple thousand metric tons of ‘innovative and unique material developed by the same French company (“French Co. awarded contract to supply pipelines for fifth unapproved project’, KN December 2). While the total dollar amount of the deal between ExxonMobil and Vallourec is unknown at this time, it is sure to be many millions of American dollars. The key thing to note is that the materials are for Guyana’s fifth project, Uaru, which is still unapproved by the Guyana Government.

How could this be? In which other country in the world does something like this happen? What is the use of Government in Guyana? Do we even need Government here, when decisions and development related to the biggest thing ever to hit Guyana are being made, as if our Government does not exist? Or, as if it doesn’t matter what the PPP/C Government approves or doesn’t approve, the fifth project is going to proceed anyway?

On the other hand, there could be something else at work, given what ExxonMobil and Vallourec are doing. That is, something that is treacherous and says so much about how this country’s oil business is being conducted. It is not improper to think that, considering the great assurance of ExxonMobil in awarding contracts like these, and to commit its capital, some secret, backdoor agreement or understanding has been finalized between the PPP/C Government leadership and the American oil superpower. It is not the first instance of the manifestation of this kind of confidence on the part of ExxonMobil in how it operates in Guyana’s oil sector.

Several months ago, another European company had already started pipeline work in relation to the gas to energy project that is to terminate at Wales. Just as the situation now stands with the fifth project (Uaru), the Wales project was also not officially approved at that time. But expensive works had started, only for Guyanese to find out months later. We have to ask the same question again: which Government, what kind of leaders, oversee a trillion-dollar national patrimony in this manner? Because of what has occurred, this can never be considered, even by the most negligible standards, to be what represents clean governance, and trusted leadership. Crucial developments are happening in secret, and locals are only finding out after the fact.

We at this publication strongly wish for all Guyanese to get the best out of its oil wealth. This can only happen when our Leaders are straight with us, and deal with ExxonMobil-led consortium in an aboveboard manner. When ExxonMobil can go out and often finalize multi-million dollar contracts with suppliers for unapproved projects, this tells us that our Leaders are working behind our backs and to our extreme disadvantage. What Guyanese now live with since the discovery of oil is not Government, but gangsterism under official cover?

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Where else in the world does a Government operate like this?

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