Guyana’s oil good for everybody

Apr 03, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Chevron’s CEO, Mr. Mike Wirth, is now firmly rooted in the bandwagon, the latest member of the choir singing to the glitter of Guyana’s oil. In fact, attentive Guyanese should notice how careful corporate executives like the Chevron CEO go the extra kilometer with assurances that Guyana will be a big beneficiary in its oil wealth. They don’t ever make the mistake of leaving out Guyana in their public pronouncements, for that would leave them open to all manner of denouncements.

Speaking at the annual CERAWeek gathering in the oil capital of the world, Houston, Texas, Mr. Wirth had a mouthful of sweet-sounding words to share. “Look, a couple of things. Number one, this transaction is an important one. It’s good for Chevron shareholders. It’s good for Hess shareholders. It’s good for the country of Guyana. I think it’s good for US energy security. Good for the industry. So we think it’s an important deal and a good deal.”

For starters, Mr. John Hess’s sale of his Hess Corporation to Chevron is a good one for everybody, according to Wirth. What should strike Guyanese us where Guyana features in all his doling out of great gobs of goodness with their wealth. Chevron’s shareholders are first in the good news and good times line. Hess Corporation’s investors come next in the windfall of what is good from the pending sale of their company. We at this paper, therefore, should be excited that Guyana features in third spot when the good from this country’s massive oil wealth is distributed. For the record, we are not, because when the oil wealth of Guyana is divided, it has been only a trickle that dribbles to the Guyanese people. Guyana should not be third in line in Chevron’s Mr. Wirth’s (or Exxon’s Mr. Woods’) vision and consideration. Guyana must be first, and this is nonnegotiable in our thinking, nonnegotiable by conviction.

Study the record of multinational oil companies like Chevron, it is a major step up for countries like Guyana to have any place at all in the public expressions of such corporate marauders. We are surprised that Mr. Wirth was careful enough and correct enough to include the “country of Guyana” in his symphony about what is good. Places like Guyana are not seen as countries in the estimation of people like Mike Wirth and Darren Woods. Instead, they are seen as treasure houses to be raided at will, with the help of dirty local leaders. In addition, the people are not seen as human beings, but as obstacles that must be crushed if they get in the way of the plundering.

But there was the newest full-mouthed corporate hypocrite Michael Wirth of Chevron telling the CERAWeek audience that his deal is good for Guyana. He has signed on to handover the equivalent of US$53B to grab a piece of Guyana from Hess Corporation. Meanwhile, there are visions dancing in his head (and his people) of reaping 10, maybe as much as 20, times that amount when Chevron has exhausted what was once the inheritance of Guyanese. The experience to date of Guyanese is that everyone can get to know, can enjoy, what is good from Guyana’s oil, but the same experience (knowing and enjoying) has not applied to them. The foreign oil industry suppliers get the good of Guyana, their subcontractors relish the good coming from Guyana, and their shareholders and workers celebrate the good that is embedded in Guyana. The ordinary Guyanese citizen is a stranger to all of this. Guyanese may even be considered in many quarters of ExxonMobil, and the probably exiting Hess Corporation, and the unmoving CNOOC, and the hoping, pushing-for-incoming Chevron as noisemakers and nuisances that should neither be seen nor heard.

Wirth is telling the world that the local oil wealth would be good for Guyana. But only after his own constituency at Chevron is taken care of first. Where is President Ali, Vice President Jagdeo, and Opposition Leader Norton representing the same priority (the highest) for their own people? When a leader like Jagdeo could always be speaking first and foremost of what is good for ExxonMobil, then it is inevitable that Guyanese will finish last.

Chevron’s CEO, Guyana, Houston, Mr. Mike Wirth, Texas

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Guyana’s oil good for everybody

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