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Citizens demand ring-fencing, capped interest rates, return of oil blocks from ExxonMobil at protest
Kaieteur News – Just over 100 Guyanese citizens braved the heat on Friday and protested in front of the Office of the President, Vlissengen Road, Georgetown, demanding that ExxonMobil Guyana returns the “120 oil blocks” in the Stabroek Block by the end of the month. They also called for the government to cap all interest rates and “ring-fence” all future projects within the Block.
Scenes from Friday’s protest
The protestors responded to a call for a “Day of Protest” by Kaieteur News’ Publisher, Glenn Lall for the government to invoke a provision in the lopsided ExxonMobil oil deal for the company to relinquish 20 percent of the Stabroek Block it currently holds.
Guyanese from across the country joined minibuses to answer the call. Some 38 persons traveled from Linden to the city while the others were from Georgetown, Berbice and Mahaica.
At 09:00hrs, they began their protest shouting, “We want back we oil blocks now”. Standing with the protestors, Glenn Lall said that ExxonMobil has failed to provide evidence that it did not work during the COVID-19 lock-down.
“The one-year-extension is not valid, we must get back the 20 percent of our oil block from the Stabroek Basin now”, Glenn Lall said.
ExxonMobil is mandated by the contract to relinquish 20 percent of the Stabroek block this month, but the previous Granger-led administration had granted the company a one-year extension after it said that it could not do any exploration work during the COVID-19 period.
As it relates to the capping of interest rates, Lall explained, “Suriname does not accept interest rates, you (Govt.) are allowing ExxonMobil to rob this country billions of US in interest rate on every one of those projects. Why are you (Govt.) doing this to this Nation?”
“Poor people is suffering in this country,” another protestor shouted on camera and a woman broke down in tears as she said that “God give Guyana oil for a blessing and not a curse”.
Protestors also called on the government to ring-fence the “sixth oil project” and all future projects. The current oil deal does not include ring-fencing and the PPP/C government does not want to renegotiate with the oil giant to have that included.
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, agrees that had ring-fencing been included, Guyana would have been raking in more profits from the Stabroek Block.
However, he made it clear that his government will not go the route of renegotiating with ExxonMobil to ring-fence future projects because of the principle of sanctity of contract.
It is important to note that without ring-fencing, the other profitable projects will be used to subsidise the project, which can cause overall profits to diminish.
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