H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – CHEVRON COMETH, WHAT DOES IT BRINGETH

Oct 31, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – For over a year, John Hess and Mike Wirth, the CEOs of Hess Corporation and Chevron respectively sat down in swank establishments, sipped vintage wines, supped on beluga caviar, and talked turkey.  As a quick aside, I hope that Guyana is not being billed for those expensive powwows.

But amid the Turkish cigar smoke, it was business, always business, and a deal done, save for some nuisance mopping up exercises. Like shareholder approval, regulatory clearances, and the Government of Guyana greenlight.  The latter is automatic.  Now Chevron cometh, what doeth bringeth to this richest of oil global oil patches?

Guyana’s biggest oilman jumped out of the paddock and read from the Bharat Jagdeo Book of Sacred Truths: Chevron has deep pockets.  Yessir! A truer conclusion has not been offered before.  Chevron’s deep pockets can have a meaning besides that it has much to spend in the Stabroek Basin, now turning out to be among the most fabled of oil reservoirs.  I regret to inform my fellow Guyanese (and Dr. Jagdeo) that deep pockets can go the other way.  That is, there are not enough barrels of oil, and not enough billions in Yankee dollars, to stuff into the company’s capacious-if I may say, bottomless-pockets, as swiftly as they can be churned out.

Ah, there is the mystery that was not an anancy story now revealed.  More barrels produced with more speed with more returns.  Maximizing revenues suddenly take on a new coloration, but with the same old deficiency: Guyana is the laggard.  Guyanese are the ones jilted again and again.  Even as I put on my trader’s and speculator’s ascot tie and hat (hypothetical investor’s also) about where oil prices would be [and demand], a side thought focuses on this great, big, hurry to produce at Formula 1 speeds. What is it that the brain trusts of Exxon and Chevron know that Guyana’s brainy people (BJ, MIA, and AN) don’t know, haven’t come around to addressing their minds.  My impression is not that Messrs. Woods and Wirth (sounds like outdoor gun show sponsors) are racing to improve their bottom line; but that they are racing against time.  Did somebody say peak oil?  Are there any whispers of alternatives proving to be competition to watch, possibly fear?  Or demand destruction and the cyclical nature of oil prices?

Whatever it may be that is driving this intense acceleration to greater and greater production levels, I still welcome more fellow Americans to Guyana.  Better the devil that is known than the one not known as well, maybe not at all.  What I do know, and which is now shared with my fellow Guyanese is that on several occasions when an environmental suit, or one of those inconvenient ones about climate matters are filed against Exxon, Chevron is right there in the defense box.  Frankly, that key should be thrown away, or made to disappear conveniently.

For some more enlightenment of locals, when action was brought against Exxon and other oil majors for abandoned wells and related decommissioning costs(Fleetwood Energy) in the Gulf of Mexico, Chevron was also among the parties fingered.  Chevron agreed to pay, Exxon balked.  Further still, and on a sour note, Chevron and Thailand have had their running disputes about who should be responsible for cleanup costs in the gas fields in that neighborhood.  This does not bode well for Guyana and this new partner foisted upon it, thanks to John Hess’s maneuvers.

Mr. Hess is a born salesman.  There he was selling Guyana’s democracy, Guyana’s glittering prospects to investors, while he was also busy selling his company’s Guyana interest over whisky and soda.  A genuine capitalist he is, for a seat on Chevron’s board is assured, with him being the resident Guyana expert, and handsome compensation to match.  It would be worth the expense, since Mr. Hess can guarantee movement from top Guyanese leaders, including on matters where they shouldn’t be.  I noticed that Mr. Hess is holding on to his family shares.  Some of that will be invested here, for sure, which provides the best evidence of putting his money where his mouth is.

On another note, Chevron is in Venezuela and has a foothold in Suriname. By my reckoning, the Venezuelan footprint should widen.  Now try this strange little birdie to get the glands going: with oilfields in Guyana and Suriname, and Chevron in both places, some pipes could be run to connect nearby fields in the two countries.  Suriname’s more expensive oil (contractually) could find its way cross boundary for a bigger payday here, compliments of Guyana’s giveaway contract.  I have repeatedly counseled fellow Guyanese and Jagdeo that one has to think like a thief to understand how teefin works. In the instance of Jagdeo, he needs no such insights, as he can write a 2-volume book on teefin, and all that is involved in such activities. The man knows.

Anyway, Chevron is on the way to join in the Guyana fun.  As for Guyanese, they will have to be content with dealing with a blistering, battering sun.  Mark these words: more production will come to signify more economic disillusions for Guyanese. In Messrs. Routledge and Wirth, two scorpions in a Demerara bottle, there is 70 plus years of oil knowhow.  That is arguably more than all Guyanese know, including the tricks the companies picked up along the way.  Exxon and Chevron could transform Guyana into scrap iron.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• Chevron, GHK Lall, H@rd Truths, Hess Corporation, regulatory

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