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Contract discussions, only profitable for ExxonMobil 

Oct 17, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Many Guyanese are getting the clearest idea of what kind of company ExxonMobil is.  Some have concluded that it has all the appearance of a rogue company.  In the minds of a growing number of Guyanese, a believed rogue company represents the merest glancing touch only.  For any mention of the word, ‘renegotiation’ and ExxonMobil’s hackles are raised.  Anything that has to do with a possible revision of the 2016 oil contract meets with a hard, unblinking stare from ExxonMobil’s people, the coldest of receptions.

When it is about ExxonMobil’s pocketbook and its other interests, however, then the company is almost sure to change its tune, for it is not one to allow any penny to slip out of its grasp.  It has to do with gas, and all Guyana should pay the keenest attention.

The natural gas aspect of Guyana’s oil sector is taking shape, with ExxonMobil already laying pipelines to connect from Guyana’s offshore gas fields to the Wales gas-to-energy complex.  ExxonMobil would be the exclusive supplier of gas to the plants for conversion to electricity, which Guyana needs badly.  The pipeline is a solid moneymaker for the company, and a lengthy and sizable contract covering its role as the monopoly supplier of gas, would give ExxonMobil yet another financial killing in Guyana.

We will take a stand from now, given what the lice-infested 2016 ExxonMobil-Guyana oil contract gives the company the luxury to do.  When it is beneficial for ExxonMobil to sit around a table of discussion, and converse about changes to the 2016 contract, it would most likely be about what is limited to gas transportation, gas supply, gas packaging, gas commitments, gas resale (if excess makes this feasible), and as all have to do with as much profits can be had from Guyana’s gas for the company.  What is interesting is that ExxonMobil could be approaching the table for conversations with the Government of Guyana, and with a single objective only: extracting the maximum profits that could be wrung out of Guyana.  The same company and its head honchos, who dismiss out of hand any development about renegotiation could themselves now be the ones pushing for conversations about gas, and what could be had for ExxonMobil from it.

The Government of Guyana, in the persons of President Ali, Vice President Jagdeo, and the Minister of Natural Resources Minister Bharat, are all watched on how such a development from ExxonMobil’s quarters would be handled.  Since the company already most likely knows how it wants to price its gas package, Guyana must also be of the same mind, in that its leaders know what they must get for this country as part of the discussion.

For, call it whatever is desired, conversation or discussion or introduction into the gas formula, it would be nothing but a selective renegotiation of the 2016 contract.  The way we see this is that when any one aspect of the 2106 contract is touched or tinkered with, then all the other clauses, terms, and conditions are fair game for tabling and revising. The difference in this instance is that Guyanese leaders have a much clearer understanding of the kind of vicious, ‘take no survivors’, corporate creature that ExxonMobil is, and they have to be prepared to be tough and thorough.

ExxonMobil has run a contract racket from the first day, under which it has fleeced Guyanese for all that they are worth.  ExxonMobil has been the finest example of a greedy and grasping and gluttonous partner with this nation’s oil wealth.  ExxonMobil must not be given an inch to do the same with the natural gas portion of Guyana’s patrimony.  The company is planning for Guyana, and Guyana should be planning a bag of its own surprises for this one-sided, twisted-sided, and tricky-sided partner that made gold out of oil here.

Neither the PPPC Government in its entirety, nor Vice President Jagdeo acting with the fullest authority, should allow ExxonMobil to hold this country to ransom with whatever it puts on any table, as its terms for gas delivery to Wales.  Guyana has been badly burned with the oil contract, let the same not be with any gas contract development.

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