Darren Woods on a tear, Bharrat Jagdeo shedding tears

Feb 11, 2024 News, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall…

Kaieteur News – Take a listen to Exxon’s CEO, Mr. Darren Woods: US$9.7B in “structural cost savings”.  Whatever that is, and however it is dressed up, a piece of that multibillion-dollar saving was torn out of Guyana’s hamstring.  More from Mr. Woods: “no other company can match the depth and breadth of development opportunities that Exxon offers.”  That’s telling the world, boss, and it is no exaggeration.  Development opportunities include new business ventures, but Guyana and Permian oil is where the steak and gravy are for Exxon.  Other Exxon businesses contribute to the company’s profitability, but it is Guyana’s fabled Stabroek Block oil output-flea market cheap, name brand designer quality, and close to market-is what makes its profit needle move.  Guyana’s oil does not just make Exxon’s profit needle move, it makes it dance and shimmy with lush economic artistry.  Rudolf Nureyev would have turned green with jealousy.

Chief Executive Woods opens his mouth, and he speaks in the language of an assayer, a goldsmith, a bubbling diamond magnate, when it is Guyana’s oil involved.  Gem and jewel and nugget and of the kind and quantity that weighed down the crown on Queens Victoria and Elizabeth II heads.  Exxon’s crown jewels are not from India or Africa, they are from Guyana.  If I were Darren Woods, I would stop managing and strategizing, and take up the full-time job of pronouncing with bewitching pearls of syntactical adornments about the unmatched allure of Guyana’s oil.  And how much it means to Exxon.  Also, so that none forgets the residential and commercial boilers of Europe in this lean time of traditional supplies. I exhort my fellow Guyanese to observe and absorb how the cup of CEO Woodsoverflows with the grandeur of Guyana’s oil wealth.  I would have demanded the immediate tripling of my compensation package; alright, aw right, let’s not get carried away and get greedy, double would be just as well-received.

Now for the polar opposite to Mr. Woods.  I present Guyana’s chief prognosticator, vacillator, and dithering dissembler. Plus a scheming designer on its oil patrimony, Daktah Bhaar-raat Jagdeo.  Whereas Mr. Woods is soaring into the stratosphere, Guyana’s Jagdeo smartly descends into the dumps.  When Darren Woods is prolific with rich text on Guyana’s oil, Bharrat Jagdeo is busy with his tortured subtexts, and subterranean pretexts.

Now it is time to listen, and grab hold of Jagdeo on Guyana’s oil, and who it should mean much for, and which should be guaranteed.  Jagdeo has spoken mouthful after mouthful about the primacy of investors and their right to a return.  No arguments from this side of the street.  But his prioritizing investors is the identical constituency that is so dear to Darren Woods’ heart.  Where is the room, the paramountcy of place, for the Guyanese people, the preferred shareholders of this oil asset?  When it is not investors’ rights and their nervousness, it is sanctity of contract.  Sanctity for Exxon, of course, even if it means surrendering national sovereignty, the complete collapse of governmental power, and throwing the entire Guyanese population under an express bus.  Jagdeo, a man of no mean learning (and distinguished by meaner spirits), is the rabbi overseeing rapid fire approval of new oil projects for Exxon now, but steering Guyanese to the future.  He has Guyanese on a 25-year fixed deposit CD.  They get to cash in later on from their patrimony.  Woods highlights the here and now, then tomorrow for his people, while Jagdeo points Guyanese to some distant, undefined, mysterious future.  Max money then: the challenge is to get from now to then.  The latest from Boss Jagdeo is the volatility of the commodity prices, with none matching oil for turbulence and whiplash effect.  He is now a savvy oil trader dealing with a fleet of tankers, and insisting upon circumspection with pay raises.  Darren Woods is on a tear, Bharrat Jagdeo shedding tears.

When I think of the kind of leader that Jagdeo has distorted himself into, I behold a man now a full-blown oil caricature, an oil cartoon of grotesque strokes.  On each occasion that the call is for more for Guyanese, he comes up with a new dodge.  The latest is oil price volatility, as though he has suddenly discovered the secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  What next is he going to come up with on this enormous oil wealth to deny Guyanese?  Global warming?  Pending Exxon lawsuits all over the place?  Study Jagdeo closely and appreciate how he has handcuffed himself.  He talks like a PowerPoint, operates at boiling point, sticks dissenters with a ballpoint, and traps himself in a chokepoint.  He could split the hair on a fish, as fabricated.  Or, better still; split a single eyelash without making the person blink.  There was a British TV series called Black Mirror.  It required a British Prime Minister to have sex with a pig in public.  If not, his ratings would drop.  He did.  The point is that Jagdeo would do anything to keep in the good books of Woods and Routledge, even if it means coming up with hair brained to evade his leadership duty to the Guyanese people.  I suspect that Darren Woods has locked in a Superbowl spot: Go to Guyana: Jagdeo is the sweetest for investors.

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• Bharrat Jagdeo, Daktah Bhaar-raat Jagdeo, Exxon’s CEO, Guyana’s oil, Stabroek Block oil, Woodsoverflows

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