Trotman regrets heeding Exxon’s advice to stay silent on lopsided contract

Jun 28, 2023 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

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Kaieteur News – Amid a downpour of criticism from Guyanese and international organizations on the oppressive oil contract signed between government and the ExxonMobil-led consortium in 2016, the Minister who attached his signature to the deal went silent.

Almost seven years after signing the contract, former Minister Raphael Trotman admits that he made a mistake by heeding to the advice of Exxon to stay quiet on the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). He now contends that the lopsided arrangement can be renegotiated.

Trotman in a new book titled ‘From Destiny to Prosperity’ which chronicles his tenure as a Minister under the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU + AFC) Coalition government between 2015 and 2020, with a particular focus on decisions made regarding the emerging petroleum sector, wrote that one of the mistakes he made was heeding the advice of Exxon to remain hushed on the deal.

Trotman on the preface of his 201-pages book wrote, “At some time, and without realizing when, and during my tenure as a Minister, I made two mistakes that can prove fatal in politics. The first was that I depended on, and expected others to come to my defence and to explain things away. The second was that I failed to respond to the critics; believing that the truth would be seen for what it is.”

According to the former Minister, “I had been quite rightly cautioned by Mr. Carlton James, media specialist, and Exxon’s former Director for Government Relations in Guyana, never to accept an invitation to enter into a gutter fight, so I chose to stay quiet.”

Trotman has also called for a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) to be conducted into the signing of the 2016 PSA between the Government of Guyana (GoG) and the Stabroek Block partners.

The member of the AFC party had signed the deal on behalf of Guyana and was blamed for tying the country to the oppressive provisions, which make it difficult for the country to renegotiate for better terms.

In that agreement, Guyana accepted a two percent royalty on its sweet light crude and agreed for the oil companies to take 75 percent of the revenue towards the recovery of costs for their investment. The remaining 25 percent is then shared equally between the parties guaranteeing Guyana a 12.5 percent share. When Trotman signed the PSA, he also agreed to waive all taxes for the oil companies, forfeiting billions of US-dollars in revenue for the country.

Besides the fiscal terms, the country has also agreed to a number of other provisions extending an upper hand to the oil companies in the administration of the sector. For instance, the PSA shields the oil companies from the passage of new legislation that can affect their revenues. Transparency advocate, Dr. Yog Mahadeo had equated this as a mockery of the country’s Constitution.

In his new book, Trotman said he had expected that an independent and credible investigation or inquiry would have been commissioned – even before 2020. He said this would have allowed him to speak and share freely and openly on what transpired but this never occurred.

The former Minister said he had even shared his willingness to participate in an Inquiry with the Publisher of Kaieteur News, Mr. Glenn Lall but he noticed that the businessman did not use his platform to advocate for the process.

As such, he wrote, “These writings therefore are intended to put my actions and decisions into their proper context and perspective and are meant particularly for the truth to be known. There is not much new material to be revealed as most of what is known has already been publicly revealed. However, it has been impressed upon me that I have a duty to tell all that I know.”

Trotman, an Attorney-at-Law told Kaieteur News on Tuesday that he has been calling for an inquiry for years and while the process is not one to relish over, he does find it to be necessary. At the same time, he pointed out that this decision will ultimately be made by the “powers that be”. Trotman, however made it clear, “I am available and will cooperate fully, should there ever be one. Ultimately, if the people of Guyana need to know all the details, then there should be one.”

To this end, he explained, “I have decided to write because I have been encouraged to do so – lest the history of what transpired indelibly becomes someone else’s version of the ‘truth’. I write because I owe it to my children, relatives, and close friends who stood by my side against relentless torrents of criticism, vitriol, untruths, half-truths and downright nastiness…These writings do not set out to apologize, but to explain, and to do so with humility.”

Trotman’s new book features 10 chapters, each of which represents an individual episode in time and circumstance, which when brought together will provide context of the signing according to him. The 201-page book was published on June 2, 2023.

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• advice, Contract, heed, oil, PSA, regret

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