Even with Raphael Trotman’s support for renegotiation to lopsided Exxon deal; VP Jagdeo says no

Jun 30, 2023 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

Kaieteur News – While former Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman has now pledged his support for renegotiating the lopsided Stabroek Block Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) he signed with an ExxonMobil-led consortium back in 2016, Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo insists that the government will not budge on this matter.

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo

Essentially, that contract will remain untouched, even though the administration agrees that it is fraught with several unfair provisions such as a meager 2 percent royalty and a tax-free ride.

Trotman’s support for renegotiation is documented in his latest book titled: “From Destiny to Prosperity”, published by Isaiah Publications at Lot 72 Church Road, Subryanville, Guyana. In the preface, the former minister notes: “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’…And so it is against the dark and dismal backdrop of Guyana’s nascent petroleum sector that I have decided to give my side, my context, and even my defence to the lies, half-truths, misunderstandings, misinformation and vile accusations that have been uttered.”

Tortman thereafter made two revelations which were published by Kaieteur News: 1) He was advised by Mr. Carlton James, a media specialist and Exxon’s former Director for Government Relations in Guyana, “never to accept an invitation to enter into a gutter fight,” so he stayed quiet back then on criticisms about the contract; and 2) His view is that no contract is inviolable and “therefore can be renegotiated” hence he supports any initiative to get a better deal from Exxon.

Former Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman

During an interview with selected journalists yesterday, Jagdeo gave his thoughts on the foregoing revelations. The chief policy maker for the oil sector said firstly that no self-respecting man would be proud to tell the world that he succumbed to instructions from an Exxon official to seal his lips on the contract. Jagdeo boasted that Exxon could never play such games with him. He further noted that this admission by Trotman speaks volumes about the type of leadership that existed at the time the APNU+AFC was in power.

With respect to the nature of negotiations between the APNU+AFC and Exxon, Jagdeo said the former regime wasted their bargaining chip. He noted that before the PSA was signed in 2016, Exxon had already unlocked 3 billion barrels of oil at the Liza field. The Vice President said, “(Former President, David) Granger therefore had a greater bargaining tool (than when the PPP did when the contract was first signed in 1999 and no oil was unlocked but he) didn’t leverage it. So really, when you look at the sad state, they put us in and then he will come now and say you can renegotiate now because he had a change of heart, how credible could these people?”

While the government will maintain that the contract is lopsided, Jadgeo said there will be no renegotiation. In an effort to claw back some of the value lost through several loopholes in the Stabroek Block PSA, Jagdeo noted that other mechanisms were put in place. He said these include the strengthening of the environmental permits and now the regulatory framework for the oil sector. He said this is the trajectory that will be maintained, adding that Trotman’s book and all its revelations are mere “wishy-washy” justifications for the ineptitude that was displayed between 2015 to 2020.