H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – Jagdeo on Exxon’s US$2B guarantee: an exhibition in prevarication

Jan 23, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – It now appears that what many would consider routine disclosures about the nation’s oil wealth have turned into a matter of yanking teeth and pulling fingernails.  This is without any type of anesthetic administered to ease the pain of such procedures.  First, there is the continued heavy weather experienced by Exxon, with possibly covert and artful backing from Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, on the release of billions in expenses claimed by the company.

Second, I skip past the clamours and troubles that are feared by Exxon and the chief policymaker on other routine areas that are integral to oil operations.  Audit reports, and project studies, come to mind, with all now held behind iron bars and grills.  Fort Knox would have been proud.  For third, there is a new one that has generated no end of uneasiness in the world of Exxon, and in the head of Vice President Jagdeo.  It has to do with production of the US$2B parent guarantee.

Most likely, the great majority of Guyanese were resting on their laurels: there is no full parent company guarantee, but there is the consolation prize.  That is, the US$2B protection that originated with Bharrat Jagdeo.  An amount as minimal as US$2B should not be such a big deal for Exxon.  How could it be, when it is escaping the full sweep of having to be on the hook with a full parent company guarantee in the event of a disastrous oil spill.  The US$2B parent guarantee amount may seem to be on the small side to some Guyanese, but a case could be made that it just may represent what is feasible, manageable, and affordable; the essence of what is customary in the international petroleum industry.  Yet, there is this difficulty in delivering the proof that the court ordered, and what Guyanese thought was already in place.  Suddenly, to quote Winston Churchill, the evidence of the US$2B guarantee from Exxon has become a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

Why is it that everything of substance that has some relation with this oil wealth degrades to the equivalent of a hide and seek game?  Or catch me if you can?  The problem is that Guyanese are always coming up emptyhanded, with nothing but air to reach for, cling to, futilely.  Enter Bharrat Jagdeo.  When citizens thought that he was going to mount a rescue operation with this absentee US$2B guarantee from Exxon, he only added more slipperiness and darkness to the matter.

In a private capacity, he would deliver the documents, but as a government figure he has no say in the decisions of the Environmental Protection Agency.  Say that again, sir?  This is purity and integrity in governance taken to an unprecedented elevation in Guyana.  I am encountering high-level turbulence in coping with this new peculiarity and curiosity coming from my Vice-Presidential brother (New Year, same old standard that has served me well).  Why is he even referring to the EPA on this issue?  I take the liberty of directing his attention to the 2016 oil contract.  Check under “Rights to Assets and Insurance” and there are the revelations in black and white on pages 51 and 52.

It would be shocking, indeed, if the Vice President and Guyana’s leading oil authority has not gone before to where I am pointing him, did not know of its existence.  Whether he does or not, producing the evidence of this US$2B guarantee should not be the source of such leadership tortures.  These verbal gymnastics covering different personal, official, and institutional standards on the document memorializing the Exxon guarantee just should not be.  To be frank, I find the parched phrases of my brother Bharrat on an issue that should be the simplest to make good on reeking too much of the amateurish.  When this guarantee issue has to travel from citizens to court (repeatedly) and court to pivotal national institutional, and from there to the cloak of legal cover (no requirement), then this is the finest exhibition of prevarication seen to date. If there is this cast-iron objection, this redline drawn in the sand, on producing a US$2 billion document, then what is available, what could be cleared, for the enlightenment of Guyanese on the wealth that is theirs?

Guyanese should not be having this conversation.  This oil wealth ought not to be sacrificed on the altar of political and foreign corporate expediency.  If there is nothing to hide, then why is there this behaviour of Exxon and the EPA, as if there is something to hide?  Guyanese need their elected leaders to level with them, tell them a straight story.  Not prevaricate and complicate matters for seemingly inexplicable motives.  Not plunge one knife after the other into their backs.  The misgiving that I had tabled before returns with renewed strength: is there anything available to produce by way of a US$2B parent guarantee by anybody?  Exxon or the EPA?  Exxon could earn some points as an honest partner if it were to furnish what it really has.  Guyana’s EPA would gain some much-needed credibility if and when it stops playing these games that fails to convince any citizen.

(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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• exhibition, GHK Lall, guarantee, H@rd Truths, prevarication

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