Citizens ramp up protest against poor management of oil sector

Apr 06, 2023 News

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…say failure to conduct audits, implement liability coverage could cost Guyana US-billions

Kaieteur News – Scores of citizens on Wednesday took to the streets to protest the Guyana Government’s poor management of the local petroleum industry.

The picket activity was held outside the Office of the President, Vlissengen Road, Georgetown and was organised by Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), ‘Red Thread’. It was the second such activity hosted by the organisation, demanding full liability coverage be put in place to secure the oil and gas activities in the Stabroek Block, operated by Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL)- the subsidiary of oil major ExxonMobil.

One of the representatives from the organisation, Karen Desouza while on the picket line told Kaieteur News, “the nonsense that they are telling us that they have insurance coverage is not going to cut it because the insurance is not going to pay the full cost of any potential clean up after a spill.” DeSouza added that similarly, it is unacceptable for the country’s elected leaders to believe that there would not be an oil spill offshore as such she urged that the nation must not sit and wait for such an event to take place before it takes steps to put protection in place.

“We don’t want to get into any kind of adversarial position with the government or the oil explorers; what we are saying is that we are Guyanese and it is Guyanese who will have to bear the cost if we do not have those guarantees and so we are asking the government and the Environmental Protection Agency to recognise that and to act in the interest of Guya

na to make sure we have signed protections and guarantees.”

DeSouza pointed out that a signed guarantee from ExxonMobil is in fact a requirement of the Permit granted to the oil company. Head of the Transparency Institute in Guyana, Frederick Collins was also part of the protest. In an invited comment, he said there is no clear governance policy in place for the sector, but rather mere “antics” from the politicians. He explained, “the way I see things going there is more sham than sincerity. We have for example heard that we have some kind of anti-corruption framework launched by the government but they didn’t even entertain questions. It was a sham. In fact the way the EPA operates it is worst than a sham. They appear to be on the side of the oil companies instead of being able to supervise them.”

Collins said the decisions of the agency have so far aligned with the objectives of the oil company, rather than the interests of Guyanese with “not even a care about the optics.”

The President of the local Transparency Institute said he is not calling for better management of the oil sector, but management of the industry. According to him, “I won’t say better management but management of the sector. It is so ridiculous, one can hardly call for better management; it needs management. There is an appearance of management, just enough to please and impress some people.”

He said to ensure there is a management plan in place; the politicians should ensure timely audits are conducted of the expenses and transparency as it regards the sale of the nation’s oil.

Meanwhile, another citizen, Gregory Allen who joined the Red Thread protest said he was there to demand better fiscal terms in the Stabroek Block contract. Allen said it is critical that the politicians understand the need for ring-fencing to be implemented along with improved terms on all projects to be approved for Exxon. “No other project must be approved unless we have better royalties, ring-fencing and better management of our oil sector,” Allen said. He believes more citizens should join the protest as the exercise seeks to ensure locals benefit from the offshore activities, especially since their food chain and environment are being threatened by the industry.

Another Red Thread representative who only stated her name as ‘Shirley’ said she wants to see the leaders enforce the provisions of the environmental permit granted to Exxon for the company to sign a parent company guarantee so that Guyanese are not left to foot the costs after an oil spill that the limited insurance fails to cover.

Civil society activist, Danuta Radzik was also at the protest. She told Kaieteur News, “It is necessary, now more than ever, for Exxon to be audited very carefully as to what we are doing in relation to all the money that Guyana is paying them for all the oil and gas development and the industry.”  Radzik argued that the government cannot simply accept the bills handed to country but must instead scrutinize these thoroughly to ensure the nation is not being robbed of US-billions.

She was keen to note that for the country to have better management of the sector, it must be equipped with the requisite experts. According to her, “I don’t think it’s being done properly. All the evidence that the people of Guyana including the press and environmentalists have been exposing continuously proves to be accurate so it continues to be a huge problem for the actual monitoring of the oil and gas industries in all kinds of areas, including drilling, exploration, production etcetera because there are many issues like waste management…”

The activist said even though the generation of hazardous waste in communities continue to be a problem, there have been no reports to show the public how much waste is coming to shore, if tests are conducted and how it is treated.

“When you read the international press, ExxonMobil does not have a good reputation. There are numerous places in America but apart from America there are cases where people have taken them to Court (but) they (government) don’t seem to be taking that seriously enough and it seems as when it comes to ExxonMobil and EEPGL, they just have permission to do as they want,” she protested.

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• Audit, ExxonMobil, Insurance, oil, protest

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