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Govt.-to-Govt. arrangements for nation’s oil blocks must be made public – Khemraj Ramjattan
Kaieteur News – As the Government of Guyana (GoG) engages its allies to secure partnerships in exchange for the nation’s oil blocks, the Alliance For Change (AFC) has signalled its support, on the condition that all details regarding the arrangements be made public.
Leader of the party, Khemraj Ramjattan in an invited comment told this newspaper on Friday that he has no objection to this decision taken by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government.
“I do not have an objection to direct government to government (agreements). What I would like to see however is the transparency of whatever is the government-to-government deals or transactions,” Ramjattan said.
He was keen to note that the Opposition will be looking forward, at the very least, for the details regarding such arrangements to be shared in the National Assembly.
Map showing the location of Guyana’s offshore oil blocks
According to him, “there should not be any secrecy … about it, it should be open and that is my position at this point.”
Head-of-State, Irfaan Ali disclosed back in October 2022, prior to the launch of Guyana’s maiden Oil Blocks Auction in December that his government has set aside certain oil blocks which would be used for government-to-government partnerships.
Ali made the disclosure during a press conference with British High Commissioner, Jane Miller. He refused to divulge further details on which specific blocks were set aside as well as what special purpose vehicle would be used to represent the State’s interests in such matters. He did pledge however to distil such details at the appropriate time.
During Guyana’s International Energy Conference, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo disclosed that Brazil, Qatar, India and Kuwait are in line to benefit from the nation’s oil blocks.
“We’ve gone out to auction now for 14 blocks and we still have remaining some areas where we hope to work through a bilateral arrangement with the governments of Brazil, Qatar, India and those others who have expressed (interest). Kuwait has just expressed some interest in that regard.”
Last month, it was reported that Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo is soon expected to leave Guyana to tie up agreements with the Government of India for cooperation in the blossoming local oil and gas industry. He is presently out of the country meeting with high level government officials on this front.
Jagdeo in announcing the auction of 14 of Guyana’s oil blocks last November had said the process “is consistent with the promise we made while in Opposition that future blocks will be given out only through auction. We are not going to do this directly, except if it’s a state-to-state engagement with the government participating.”
Award of Kaieteur and Canje oil blocks
Transparency in the award of the oil blocks is especially important since the “giveaway” of the Kaieteur and Canje blocks still leave much to be desired.
In a series entitled, ‘The Fleecing of Guyana’, Kaieteur News had exposed some of the red flags in the Canje and Kaieteur oil Blocks agreements.
The Canje Block for instance was awarded by the Donald Ramotar administration on March 4, 2015, days before that year’s General and Regional Elections, to a local company, Mid-Atlantic Oil and Gas.
Similarly, the Kaieteur Block was awarded on April 28, 2015, just two weeks before the elections, and like the Canje Block, it was done based on the advice of former Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud. Two companies received the block with 50-50 stakes – Ratio Energy Limited (now Cataleya Energy Limited) and Ratio Guyana Limited.
The award of the oil blocks to the companies was especially concerning since the ultra-deep drilling is required for those blocks, a technique which only a handful of companies in the world have the technology, track record, and capability to execute.
The red flags which have manifested in both situations are that the awards were given to unqualified companies, that the initial owners quickly flipped the blocks without doing any work, that they are incorporated in ‘secrecy’ jurisdictions, and that Guyana likely lost revenue due to the avoidance of an open, competitive bidding process.
That matter was marred with controversy and the former president faced public scrutiny due to the fact that the blocks were given out so close to Election Day.
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