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Opposition renews call for auditors’ training, consultants to engage Exxon but still considering ring-fencing
Kaieteur News – The Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton on Thursday listed a number of initiatives he wants to be implemented by the Government of Guyana (GoG) for the prudent management of the country’s burgeoning petroleum sector.
Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton
Norton during his first press conference for the year was asked by Kaieteur News to list a few of the measures he would like to see implemented this year by government to allow for more revenues to be generated from the sector.
In his response, he reasoned, “I have said before that our country is being mismanaged, even before we talk about increasing the income from oil. we have to manage that which we have now properly and we are not doing that.”
The Opposition Leader said he saw an article recently in which a Consultant from Trinidad and Tobago urged Guyana to put meters on the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels in operation to keep watch on the number of barrels being exported.
He did not say definitively whether he was in support of independent meters to monitor the daily rate of production by ExxonMobil but went on to cite the need for Guyanese to be trained to conduct audits of the company’s US- multibillion-dollar expenses.
“We also did say that the government should spend some money on international consulting companies that can help us to benefit. I see much sense in spending let’s say $20M on a company that will help you manage and achieve your objective than not spending it but your resources going in all direction and you don’t have control of it. I believe the first task is to improve the capacity of Guyana to monitor, evaluate and audit our oil and gas resources,” Norton stated.
While the Leader of the Opposition was clear on his position regarding audit training and use of consultants, the same diligence was not extended to the subject of ring-fencing.
He told this newspaper, “I have said before, we agree in (the) principle of ring-fencing but we will look at each case and determine what we do.”
A ring-fencing provision would mandate each oil project to for itself. Once the project has been repaid Guyana would benefit from half of the revenue generated there. In the absence of this arrangement, ExxonMobil has been utilizing the revenues from the producing projects to pay for developments that are yet to come on stream.
This also results in the country receiving lower profits. The GoG has said that ring-fencing the projects now can prevent future investments in the Stabroek Block and believes the country will benefit from massive revenues after the country repays the oil companies for its investments.
Even though the government has acknowledged that oil prices may fall in the future, which can thereby affect the wealth to be received by Guyana; it is adamant that the projects will not be ring-fenced.
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