Opposition yet to reach out to citizens fighting for ‘unlimited parent guarantee’ despite promising support

Jun 20, 2023 Court Stories, ExxonMobil, Features / Columnists, News, Oil & Gas

Kaieteur News – Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Aubrey Norton has not made contact with the citizens fighting for an unlimited parent company guarantee from ExxonMobil, in the event of an oil spill.

This is so even as the leader had thrown his support of the legal challenge filed by two Guyanese, Frederick Collins and Godfrey Whyte. At a press conference on May 4, 2023, Norton told reporters he is ready to support the citizens in their quest all the way to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). The leader said: “we are prepared to back people. We are prepared to ensure that Guyanese take all the legal action but we hope that good sense would prevail and that the PPP wouldn’t appeal this decision.”

Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton

He did not offer specifics on whether his party is prepared to back the citizens financially or by availing its legal team to the group. Be that as it may, Norton still has not reached out, despite his announcement more than two weeks ago.

In a recent interview with Kaieteur News, one of the litigants who had won the case against Exxon said: “I was unaware of Mr. Norton’s position and I’m not aware that anyone has approached the team to offer (any) assistance.”

Collins added that he is not surprised nor is he disappointed since he understands that political parties will only act in the interest of their parties. “One gets the impression that the party comes before the country and so we are grateful for any support from any quarter, but we are not surprised because political parties do what political parties in Guyana do best, they do what they perceive to be to their advantage,” he noted.

On the other hand, Collins pointed out that the governing party has taken a strange route by appealing the High Court’s order for an unlimited parent company guarantee from Exxon. Collins, who is also President of the Transparency Initiative Guyana Inc (TIGI) said “we would have thought that even the governing party would have seen the outcome of that case in their interest, but we don’t know what’s in their minds.”

On May 3, 2023 High Court Judge, Justice Sandil Kissoon handed down a ruling, ordering Exxon to provide an unlimited parent guarantee within 30 days. Failure by the company to comply would have resulted in the suspension of the Liza One Permit. The Liza One project is currently producing about 150,000 barrels of oil per day. An appeal of the ruling was filed shortly after the decision was handed down and is ongoing in the Court. Collins had said that while he is confident in the outcome of the appeal, he is prepared to fight for the protection of Guyana and its Caribbean neighbours at the Trinidad-based CCJ. He told Kaieteur News that he does not believe the appeal by government and Exxon has potential for success.

The TIGI President added that he believes the CCJ would be particularly interested in understanding why such an appeal would be struck down especially considering its worldwide importance. He pointed out that the case would be the first in which an oil company would be held to account up front for incidents from a country in which is operating. The GoG has appealed the ruling by Justice Sandil Kissoon arguing that it would suffer grave losses if the company’s Permit is suspended.

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