VP Jagdeo sets conditions for renegotiation of Exxon contract

Mar 10, 2024 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

Kaieteur News – Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday disclosed that anyone can submit plans on how the government can renegotiate Guyana’s oil contract once they stick to the conditions that have been outlined by him.

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo

“The offer to renegotiate Guyana’s oil contracts is open to anyone who can come up with the plan to do so once they stick to the conditions set,” Jagdeo told reporters on Thursday at his weekly press conference held at Freedom House, Robb Street, Georgetown.

The Vice President’s statement came following questions by a Kaieteur News reporter on the subject.

The reporter asked, “Last week you challenged the Opposition Leader to come up with a plan and a strategy to renegotiate the oil contracts. Why don’t you make the same offer to oil and gas experts like Chatham House and other international oil experts including the T&T Oil Minister who is willing to help?”

In response Jagdeo said, “The offer is available to anyone, where as I outlined the conditions. That we don’t lose momentum, let me go through it again… so no litigation that will stop the development of future projects that’s one. Two, that the window that we have through net zero…be taken into account and there are a couple of other conditions.”

The VP then reiterated that the offer is, “available to anyone who can come up with that plan to do this. It’s not (just) the Minister of Oil in Trinidad and everything else. Whoever wants to come up with that (plan can do so).”

Notwithstanding his position, the Vice President maintained that the aforementioned conditions outlined must be met by those who believe the contract can be renegotiated.

Further, Jagdeo at his February 29, 2024 press conference, challenged Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton and his ‘secret’ oil and gas advisors to draft a “sensible” renegotiation plan for the lopsided Stabroek Block oil contract.

In response to a question posed by Kaieteur News, the Vice President said that Norton’s refusal to reveal the identity of his oil and gas committee is “nonsense”.

Norton at an earlier press conference, refused to name his oil and gas advisors. Jagdeo labeled oil and gas issues as “serious developmental matters” and said “It’s utter nonsense… you have to compete with your ideas, you have to compete with people, not on racism all the time.”

Kaieteur News later asked the Vice President if he will support Norton’s oil and gas advisors if they devise a strategy to renegotiate the Stabroek Block deal. Jagdeo responded, “Let him come with a strategy and then I will speak about it” while noting that such a strategy would receive his support if the plan is sensible.

“If it is a clownish strategy don’t expect me to support it, if it’s sensible and it takes all the variables into consideration…” Jagdeo said.

The first variable is that “Net Zero” can be a “constraining factor” for the future of oil and gas. Net zero refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) that’s produced and the amount that’s removed from the atmosphere.

According to Jagdeo, Net Zero is a global reality. “…Every country speaks about it, every country in the world speaks about it, Saudi Arabia speaks about it UAE Qatar and we in Guyana behave as though that doesn’t exist, that variable, which is a constraining factor for the future,” the Vice President told Kaieteur News.

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