Jagdeo refuses Trotman’s help to renegotiate Exxon contract

Jul 21, 2023 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

Kaieteur News – Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo has outrightly refused the support offered by former Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman to renegotiate the lopsided Stabroek Block deal the country has with an ExxonMobil-led consortium. Trotman’s support for renegotiation is enshrined in his latest book titled, ‘From Destiny to Prosperity.’

Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo

Trotman noted in the book that he has observed how the demand for renegotiation of the Exxon contract continues unabated. He said, “My own view is that no contract is inviolable, and therefore, it can be renegotiated. However, I can’t support a renegotiation based on some ‘fraud,’ which never occurred. Undoubtedly, if Guyana, as a sovereign state wishes to renegotiate the contract to get ‘better’ terms, then I would support such an initiative.”

Though the People’s Progressive Party while in opposition had said it would renegotiate and review all oil contracts, now that it is in government, Trotman said he has observed how the tune has changed. He said it is clear that the administration is obviously faced with many of the same geo-political and geo-strategic realities and imperatives that the former APNU+AFC regime had encountered. “It was easy to make bold statements and promises from the campaign podium, but when in government, realities have to be confronted. Stepping out and stepping forward is not as straightforward as many believe, and it will be interesting to see how it navigates through this intricate maze of jealously guarded interests,” the former minister stated.

Based on the foregoing, Jagdeo was asked yesterday at a press conference if the party is willing to take Trotman’s help. He said, “No, have you considered this? And I am just speculating wildly. Trotmans’s only purpose for bringing out that book was to say he didn’t commit any fraud; (It was to say) ‘I made an error, I did this’ etc but I didn’t commit any fraud.’ If a fraud was committed the contract could be set aside. But he has no credibility.” On that premise, the Vice President said Trotman cannot help his party do anything.

Former Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman

In a previous interview, Jagdeo said the former regime wasted its bargaining chip when the first discovery was announced in May 2015 and the APNBU+AFC regime had entered talks with Exxon to renegotiate the contract now criticized as lopsided. Jagdeo had noted that before the Stabroek Block Production Sharing Agreement (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 from 2015 to 2020 by the APNU+AFC faction that has since parted ways.

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Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman, support, Vice President

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