Disrespectful for Exxon and Govt. to keep country in the dark on its oil reserves – Opposition

Mar 17, 2024 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

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Kaieteur News – The Office of the Leader of the Opposition is calling for the release of the updated Stabroek Block reserves, following the announcement of an eight discovery on Friday, since the country received its last resource estimate from ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL).

Since April 2022, Exxon has not provided the country with an update on the estimated resources discovered in the prolific Stabroek Block. On Friday, Exxon announced another successful discovery, Bluefin, but was tight-lipped on how this increased the country’s total recoverable resources, from its last estimate of 11 billion barrels- some eight discoveries ago.

In a statement yesterday, the Opposition said it support calls for the nation to be updated on the amount of discovered oil reserves and believes it is disrespectful that the country is being kept in the dark.

It said, “Regardless whether it is the company that is keeping the government in the dark or whether it is the government keeping the people in the dark, the lack of transparency is totally disrespectful and unacceptable. The natural resources of Guyana belong to the people of Guyana. In the Preamble of our Constitution, we have declared our commitment “to protect our natural environment and endowment.” Citizens are impeded in performing this duty if vital information on their oil resources is denied them.”

The political body was keen to point out that under the former A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition government in 2017, Guyana was officially accepted as an implementing country under the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI). “One of the cornerstone principles of this body speaks to “the importance of transparency by governments and companies in the extractive industries and the need to enhance public financial management and accountability.” We therefore demand full compliance with our constitution, relevant laws, and the principles of the EITI. We demand full respect of our expectations and rights,” the Opposition noted.

The Oil and Gas Governance Network (OGGN), an overseas based advocacy group for transparency and good governance had accused the government of Guyana of conniving with the oil giant to hide the oil reserves from the country. OGGN had also called for updates to be provided by the company, within a month of new discoveries.

It pointed out that its members are well aware of the fact that calculating reserves is the simplest of tasks, performed soon after the exploratory well(s) is/ are drilled. To this end, they concluded that government was conniving with the oil company to hide the nation’s oil reserves.

They said, “Notwithstanding being abetted by the Government, Exxon plays the Guyanese people for dummies to believe that this oil reserve calculation is so complicated to require years…why, and what kind of Government would want to connive with a foreign company to hide our god given wealth and the amount in our bank account?”

ExxonMobil had said the company is no longer focused on providing updates on the number of barrels added to its resource base, but on monetizing those resources.

The chief policy maker for the sector, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had agreed with the company’s position to hide the new discovery figures from the public.

During a press conference at Office of the President, the Vice President said the question of Exxon’s update of the resources is not as serious an issue as it is being made out to be by some industry stakeholders. He said Exxon’s announcement, or lack thereof, will not change the fact that there is a discovery already there for the benefit for the country.

“It’s just a matter of timing when we increase our reserves or not…In fact, they (Exxon) have a greater kind of need to do that because globally… they look at your reserve and that helps to move stock prices for Exxon but they’ve decided that they want to focus more on appraisals as to how many barrels are in these discoveries, etc,” said the Vice President. Overall, he said Exxon’s move to focus on monetizing the discovered resources is a logical step.

Senior Vice President of Exxon Mobil Corporation, Neil Chapman later disclosed during the Morgan Stanley’s Energy and Power Conference earlier this month that appraisal works were being conducted by the company to understand the resources discovered.

Chapman said, “We have six drilling ships in the basin in pretty close proximity. And these drill ships are doing a combination of what I call exploration drilling, appraisal drilling and development drilling.”

In the realm of oil and gas, companies undertake a process known to the industry as appraisal to help the developer determine whether or not a project is viable. This process helps to reduce the range of uncertainty in the volumes of hydrocarbons in place; define the size and configuration of the reservoir and collect data for the prediction of the performance of the reservoir during the forecasted production life.

This therefore means that Exxon has deliberately decided not to update the nation on the true value of its offshore resources and also has the blessings of government to instead rush to pump the country’s oil.

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• discovery, disrespectful, oil, reserves, Stabroek Block, update

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