A US$500M cap Guyanese must wear

May 22, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The leaders of ExxonMobil delivered a scheme that should leave Guyanese asking how this oil company can ever be thought of as a genuine partner. ExxonMobil’s scheme is to set US$500M as the full and final expression of its liabilities for what it called any oil ‘incident.’ We are not constrained by the games that this American oil giant is playing, so we call ‘incident’ for what it is: an oil spill that is devastating, one from which it would be costly to return a level national footing.

Conspicuously, it could be said that what cowardly Guyanese members of parliament on the PPPC Government side couldn’t get done, dare not go near, ExxonMobil showed Guyana’s parliamentary weaklings how to execute. In substance, what Guyana’s members of parliament did not have the brain capacity to do, ExxonMobil did with a flourish, which is what citizens must now grapple with.

A huge fight, one big stink, took place in parliament, with PPPC MPs taking up the cudgels for ExxonMobil. When they did so, they left Guyana naked and exposed, subject to the whims and maneuvers of the oil supergiant. Government MPs were quick to follow in lockstep their shameless comrades with what was nothing but hogwash and trash. They said that an unlimited parent company is calling for the undoable, since it could neither be defined nor quantified. Another parliamentary star spoke of the highly unlikely probability of a catastrophic oil spill, one of such destructive proportions, that it would require an unlimited parent company guarantee would be needed, have to come into play. This is the type of agents that Guyanese have in their highest national legislative body, and they are devoted lock, stock, and barrel to the ExxonMobil cause. Better flunkeys the Americans buccaneers have not had in all their history across the globe. Rather than let the strong and the smart of ExxonMobil carry their own load about a parent company guarantee, there were Guyanese in parliament doing the heavy lifting, and not caring how treacherous they look, how much of a brownnoser they make themselves into.

Where local politicians, a largely rotten bunch in normal circumstances, were fearful of going, ExxonMobil hemmed and hawed about industry levels, bought time, engaged top Guyanese politicians to collaborate with them, and presented Guyana with US$500M for what it carefully calls an incident. Not an accident or because of what is negligent, but in what it minimized almost to the point of the trivial, an incident. Without a doubt, the company is focused on looking for any new way to trick citizens, and they have the best aiders and abettors in the PPPC Government. It would not take much to insulate Guyana from economic loss, to remove its liability for an oil spill that spreads far. The company, however, is at the other end of the spectrum. It is totally focused on extracting as much oil as it can in the shortest time at the lowest cost. For taking unknown risks and exposing Guyana to untold dangers, ExxonMobil is happy to declare US$500M as its best number for an oil incident, where it has been adjudicated to be negligent. For ExxonMobil to think that it can get away with something as assaulting and degrading as that to the dignity of this country’s people, then it must be harboring a couple of ideas.

First, it is that this country is comprised of lifeless zombies who exist in a helpless haze. Second, that its blatant bigotry would pass unnoticed, and unmentioned for the sheer contempt in which Guyanese are held. From ExxonMobil’s perspective, a measly 2% royalty and a suspect 50:50 profit sharing arrangement after inflated expenses is a major revenue contributor to Guyana’s coffers. ExxonMobil’s President of its Guyana operations himself said that the contract provisions represent an unmatched revenue stream. It is clear that a similar standard was part of the company’s thinking in that US$500M is the absolute top for an individual oil incident. If asked, ExxonMobil’s Routledge is sure to say that US$500M an incident is the best in the world. With a government like the PPPC and leaders it has, he doesn’t have to fear being challenged or disgraced.

company, ExxonMobil, Government, oil, PPPC

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A US$500M cap Guyanese must wear

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