Meters

Jan 10, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – We admit to some difficulty figuring out something: what is the problem with having meters at the right points on the offshore oil operations?  We would think that the PPP/C Government, and its chief oil strategist, Bharrat Jagdeo, would be in the forefront of such an interest.  Going further, it is in the interest of ExxonMobil that these meters be in place, so that there are no questions, no concerns, no controversies, about how many barrels of oil is really being produced daily.  Meters on the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels, and the key is that they must be independent, can only be the benefit of ExxonMobil’s partnership and standing in Guyana.

So why aren’t they on the FPSOs?  What could be holding up getting them and installing them?  Why is there this shrinking and dodging by Jagdeo from what can only be termed a significant responsibility?  Quite frankly, we don’t know, and we also cannot understand the mysteries that seem to tie the hands and feet of the PPP/C Government at obtaining and installing independent meters. No Guyanese, and certainly not we at this paper, should be calling insistently for these meters to be on the FPSOs and doing their job.  The government should have already gotten this vital piece of equipment in action.

Even more perplexing is that Jagdeo, who is not known to be a slacker has manifested considerable circling around and shifting about on these meters, independent ones, for emphasis.  On the other hand, this same former head of state has a certain peculiar history.  Whenever things are on the suspicious, or much to be desired, side, either he loses his voice, or he loses his cool.  In terms of the latter, he tries to demonstrate patience and seriousness in the face of persistent inquiries, only to blow up.  What has been more and more noticeable is that on matters related to this nationally sensitive oil and gas sector, Jagdeo is a study in the artful and the fitful.  He loves to answer planted questions, or goes into an extended lecture about one oil issue or another, only for keen observers to conclude that he has not given an answer at all, at least not one that could be considered credible or persuasive.  These independent meters on the FPSOs provide one such example; certainly, no thinking citizen would find what Jagdeo is pushing to be acceptable.

Which country with mature people, which leader with some degree of commonsense, would want to use any date, any record, anything from ExxonMobil?  It is the same ExxonMobil that applied all kinds of schemes on the previous APNU+AFC Coalition government, with the horrendous 2016 Production Sharing Agreement being the result.  And it is the same ExxonMobil up to its usual tricks, in that it now stays silent and out of sight, while Guyana’s own Bharrat Jagdeo does the heavy lifting for it with these independent meters being the issue.

To be clear, ExxonMobil should want these independent meters installed on the FPSOs, so that all doubt about the accuracy of daily oil production (hundreds of thousands of barrels) is put to rest.  Moreover, if ExxonMobil’s daily production numbers are on the honest side, then it should insist that Guyana gets its own verification tools (independent meters), and not use the company’s.  Because using the production numbers, as supplied by ExxonMobil, only serves to deepen the suspicions that some kind of underhanded business may be going at full speed. The questions that should agitate all Guyanese are: how many barrels of oil are being produced daily at the offshore facilities?  Are they as ExxonMobil reports, or are they something totally different?

Guyanese do not have a clue as to how much they may be losing out if they are getting the wrong end of the ExxonMobil stick (again).  President Ali should know that, and should be concerned, but doesn’t seem so.  Vice President Jagdeo definitely knows that there is room for huge advantage to be taken of Guyana, but he also seems unfazed with his talk about capitalizing on ExxonMobil’s production feed.  Guyana should not take anything from ExxonMobil.  Guyana must get its own meters, and get them yesterday.

• Bharrat Jagdeo, chief oil strategist, Editorial, ExxonMobil, Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO)