FRONT PAGE COMMENT

Oct 23, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo’s failure to ring-fence ExxonMobil’s third, fourth, and fifth oil projects is costing each of Guyana’s 200,000 households, an estimated G$4 million per year, and this is a conservative estimate. The forgone sum of money has the potential to transform the lives of every citizen in Guyana, offering the promise of a decent existence and freedom from debt. But instead of this sum going to our people, it is being appropriated by ExxonMobil out of ‘cost oil’.

The stakes are getting even higher.

Should Jagdeo give the green light to the sixth and upward oil projects without implementing ring-fencing on them, it would mean that every household in the country stands to lose an entitlement of an additional G$8 million yearly.

Suriname, our neighbor, has ring-fenced its very first oil project.

The absence of ring-fencing is like leaving your front and back doors open for looters to come and take what they want. It is time for Guyanese to demand their share of the country’s oil wealth by insisting on ring-fencing.