“A grave dereliction of duty that borders on criminal behaviour”- Gaskin

Jan 15, 2024 News

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…no independent meters 4 years later

Kaieteur News – Civil society activist Ramon Gaskin has described the failure by government to install meters, for the purpose of independent verification of ExxonMobil’s daily rate of production, a grave dereliction of duty that borders on criminal behaviour.

In an exclusive interview with this publication on Sunday, the economist bemoaned the state of affairs some four years after the country produced its first barrel of oil.

Gaskin said, “I’m convinced in my mind that politicians are not serious about monitoring carefully what these people are doing. They are too much in bed with the oil companies and the bauxite companies and all of them. They are not doing what they are supposed to do, they are not doing their jobs that they are supposed to do when it comes to the monitoring and all kinds of things.”
He continued, “It is a grave dereliction of duty which borders on criminal behaviour with the failure to do what you are supposed to do. It is not only a neglect of duty but is criminal because; we are losing a lot of money as a result of the government and their friends not doing what they are supposed to do.”

The activist pointed out that the previous administration also shares part of the responsibility for not ensuring an independent mechanism is in place to monitor and verify the daily rate of oil production.

Meanwhile, with regard to government’s plan to utilize a cable to feed off of information received by Exxon’s Control Centre being developed at Ogle, East Coast Demerara, Gaskin argued, “We don’t need no cable from nowhere. We have to have an independent metering system. We don’t need a cable because the technology is available. The Vice President must know they can manipulate all of those results. We need a straight forward metering system that could be monitored by Guyanese inspectors on a 24-hour basis, so all this confusion with cable is unnecessary.”
The activist questioned the government’s reasoning in arriving at the decision to utilize information from the oil company to somehow verify oil production. According to him, “The government doesn’t want to do it because if Exxon say they don’t want it, Exxon is the boss and in the controlling position when it comes to the government.”

Gaskin contends that since Guyana commenced oil production government has nothing to show as a tangible achievement; instead, he pointed out that the country’s debt to international and bilateral creditors continue to climb. “There is no sharp increase for the standard of living or nothing. It’s a total mess. Since we signed this agreement for oil what can we show? What have we achieved?”

The activist said there should be no delay by government to install independent meters to verify production as Guyana could be losing hundreds of thousands daily.
Guyana on December 20, 2023, commemorated its fourth successful year of offshore deep water oil production. ExxonMobil is the operator of the prolific Stabroek Block where more than 11 billion barrel of oil resources have been discovered since 2015.

The country now has three Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels (FPSOs) in operation, without independent meters to verify production. Five projects have been sanctioned to date in the absence of this fundamental system with a sixth likely to be approved soon.

Meanwhile, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo when asked about the government’s intentions regarding the monitoring of ExxonMobil’s production during his end of year press conference in December said plans are advancing with the fiber optic cable to link Exxon’s onshore facilities to the FPSOs in the Stabroek Block.

Interestingly, Jagdeo said that once Exxon’s headquarters in Ogle, East Coast Demerara, is completed, it will enable real-time monitoring and possibly control offshore production activities.
Jagdeo explained that while government is hopeful to get a connection with the cable, he indicated plans for the government to establish its own means of monitoring, using satellite technology.
“Right now, we are in discussion with a couple people but most likely [government] will have to go to tender for a system using satellite technology. Because we don’t have that cable as yet, but later we can probably use the same cable to the things that you’re saying,” the Vice President said.

Critics believe even government’s plan for satellite monitoring of oil production is flawed since this technology cannot determine the number of barrels produced.

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• dereliction of duty, Gaskin, meters, oil, production, verify

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