How much Guyanese are worth

Jun 18, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The company that Guyana’s President Ali declared to be an oil superpower, ExxonMobil, is worth a pretty penny. US$429 billion is just shy of a half trillion, a majestic number for any company’s worth, but it is how much ExxonMobil is valued. Yet the most that this voracious oil behemoth is willing to commit to protect Guyanese is US$2 billion. The company is minting money from Guyana’s rich offshore oilfields but it can only spare pennies to obtain the absolutely vital insurance that is needed.

The people at ExxonMobil are so self-centered, so much about their own craven interests, that the most they are prepared to set aside, to give as insurance protection, for Guyanese (their oil partners) is less than half of one percent of the company’s worth. No citizen of this resource rich country should need anything more to confirm how much ExxonMobil is all about itself and cares nothing about the welfare of Guyanese. This is the known nature of enslavers, exploiters, and enrichers, as history has repeatedly taught the world.

Guyanese live with an oil contract that enslaves them, and with insurance of a kind that endangers them. Surely, the lives of Guyanese cannot be this cheap, matter for nothing but this proposed paltry US$2 billion coverage! Presently, this is the maximum that ExxonMobil is prepared to go, and not a cent more in the level of protection offered to Guyana. ExxonMobil has played every game imaginable with issuing this written, binding company assurance (‘unlimited parent company guarantee’ above and beyond any actual policy taken out).

With approximately 750,000 Guyanese citizens, this meager maximum of US$2 billion that ExxonMobil and its Guyana sidekick, Vice President Bharat Jagdeo, has bandied about translates to the interesting, if not shocking. When looked at practically, US$2 billion gives the clearest indication of how cheaply the people at ExxonMobil value the existence of Guyanese. We say this because US$2 billion divided by 750,000 gives a result of US$2,666 per person. To put into perspective, this means that in the event of an oil spill of devastating proportions, one with damages to the environment and much more, the most that Guyanese could expect, could have in their hands, is just over a half million Guyana dollars.

What could that cover for the nation as a whole, when a truly damaging oil spill wreaks havoc with way of life, with livelihoods, with an economy that grinds to a complete stop, due to its clear dependency on oil? What about financial coverage for the loss of production revenues, should a cataclysmic spill occur? What does the equivalent of 5-6 months wages do for citizens reduced to scrapping for a living in an economy now shattered and operating under a pall? It is recognized that many Guyanese in the distant regions will not be affected by the physical effects of a spill, but they are sure going to be forced to grapple for survival in a country rocked to its core, and from which economic prospects have been sucked out.

We think that ExxonMobil is gambling that US$2 billion is going to fool most Guyanese as a considerable amount of money. After all, it is in billions, and in American dollars also. But what has become more and more obvious is how ExxonMobil underestimates the intelligence of the Guyanese people, and then insults them for added measure. It should be noted that the focus is on Guyana alone, and not a word has been said about other countries (12 of them) in the region. They could also be severely impacted by a catastrophic oil spill, one that is a close cousin to the big ones that have exploded elsewhere. Nobody should need an education as to how much those neighbours of ours depend on their glittering waters, their beautiful beaches, and on tourism as the lynchpin of their economies. All of this is at stake, and we could be on the hook for it, with this US$2 billion barbarity that ExxonMobil so haughtily puts before us.

Let’s get this clear: US$2 billion is a not even a drop in the coverage bucket. An unlimited parent company guarantee is what it must be, end of discussion.

citizen, company, Editorial, ExxonMobil, Guyanese

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How much Guyanese are worth

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