Latest update January 6th, 2025 4:00 AM
Guyana could get ring-fencing, cap interest rates, secure full liability coverage etc from Exxon without renegotiating oil deal – KN Publisher
WHERE IS THE POLITICAL WILL?
Kaieteur News – Even as he maintains that Guyana can and must seek a renegotiation of the lopsided 2016 Stabroek Block deal, Kaieteur News Publisher, Glenn Lall recently proffered that significant financial value can still be clawed back without utilizing that direct approach.
KN Publisher, Dr. Glenn Lall
Through the use of addendums to the contract or inserting provisions within the relevant production permits/licences, Lall asserted that Guyana could firstly place a cap interest rates for loans taken by ExxonMobil and its partners to support future ventures.
In the absence of a cap or limit of any sort, Lall said the country is at Exxon’s mercy; the oil giant and its partners can therefore utilize various tactics, to lessen the pie to be shared.
The businessman also noted that provisions can be inserted into the environmental permits to bind ExxonMobil, the parent company, to provide full liability coverage. This ensures all oil spill expenses and compensation are handled fully by Exxon.
The businessman opined as well that future projects can be ring-fenced with the use of the requisite provisions in production licences. This he explained would ensure that the revenues for each project are not utilized elsewhere.
Further, Lall said that Guyana does not get a blind cent in terms of taxes from Exxon on its four projects which have already been approved.
President, Dr. Irfaan Ali.
“Had we been collecting taxes from ExxonMobil and their partners, Guyana would not have to run to foreign banks for loans to patch roads. We can make enough money on taxes alone to run this country,” Lall said, adding that he is waiting to see if President, Dr. Irfaan Ali will allow this opportunity to slip through the proverbial cracks on the fifth and sixth Stabroek Block projects.
Another reasonable demand he said is an increase on the meager two percent royalty and 50 percent profit split for ExxonMobil’s upcoming projects.
“We are not asking for blood; we are not wringing Exxon’s hand to break it. We are demanding what is our rightful share so that this starving nation can really inherit and live the life that the oil companies’ shareholders are enjoying with our oil…why they must be eating lobster and prawns, and drink fine wine, while we, the owners or the oil, must settle for ‘kakabelly’ (a species of local fish) and bush rum,” the publisher stated.
Lall said these are but a few of the basic rules that must be in any proper business model for the oil sector. If Ali does these things, the publisher said he would prove that he is a president for the people, by the people and of the people.
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