Pres. Ali with the Financial Times

May 31, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – The Financial Times headline can be envisioned: ‘Guyana prefers Chevron over Exxon in Hess buyout development.’

This was what the prestigious and much followed Financial Times had to have walked with from its chat with Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali. Chevron’s shares could get a boost, Exxon’s stay still, while Hess’ is up in the air. What would the presence of Chevron in Guyana mean for Guyana?  How does Exxon scheme through this?  Where does Chevron take its new 30% ownership in the Stabroek oil basin, if its deal passes all hurdles?  And, not to forget, how could Exxon and Chevron put their heads together to lead Guyana for a dance, and make bigger dummies of all Guyanese?  Well, almost all of them.

Chevron in Guyana means several things for Guyana. The first is that Guyana could find itself caught between a bloodsucking oil company vampire and a flesh-eating corporate cannibal.  We get two for the price of one.  President Ali spoke of increasing competition.  Well said, sir.  Their choice is simple: race each other to rush production upwards.  Or work out between themselves about what is best for their respective interests.  ‘Ai-yai-yai,’ Guyana.  We have a Guyanese EPA that is a nonstarter, a VP that is shuffler and a ballet dancer, and two American corporate predators that are serial stalkers, the best of stealth operators.  Woods and Wirth will weave their way and work their magic.  A double whammy in Guyana, a double dose of bitter reality for Guyanese.  Is anybody here seeing this, getting this?

On the issue of competition which the president spoke about, he should have left himself some room to think of collusion.  Huge, powerful American companies are tricky enough and bold enough do this in America for prices and supplies and market share, despite all its layers of capable and credible watchdogs.  What is there to hold back these two oil giants from going overboard in Guyana’s oilfields, where they have an open field and the freest hand to operate as they please.  Guyana started out with little to watch out for its interests, and even that has been transformed into a farce.  Here there is this diabolical race by Exxon to beat the last daily production record, it stands to reason that Chevron would want to get into that game, either as a partner, or as a competitor. Did someone say something about safety limits?  When VP Jagdeo is on the same page with Exxon and billions in project expenses are concealed from the nation, who the hell cares about safety limits?  When there is this difficulty, this infidelity to national duty, before Exxon standing on its own, then there isn’t much of a chance for better with local troubles now doubling if Chevron shows its face here.

As the new 30% partner in the Exxon-led consortium, Chevron will use its smarts to work with Exxon to the advantage of both.  I don’t discern how that improves competition here.  Both companies are seasoned enough to recognize the advantages of working together, as opposed to against each other.  In Guyanese lingo, it would be ‘haan’ wash ‘haan’ and everybody belly full through having a great good time at Guyana’s expense.  Guyana is ripe for such exploitations.  As a competitor operating in its piece of the Stabroek Block, Chevron has some catching up to do, but it has the Exxon blueprint to study and follow.  Does any Guyanese see Chevron charging Guyana less for its FPSOs?  If Chevron is going to enhance competition, how does that favour Guyana?  How when it is going to be doing business under the same unpardonable, unacceptable, 2016 contract terms and conditions that formed an integral part of the bargain bought from Hess?

Oil companies locked in a contractual relationship with Guyana should not be permitted to pass their percentages of the Stabroek Block from hand to hand as if they are in some Monte Carlo casino, and Guyana represents the bluest chips.  Guyana is not up for sale, as though this country is a willing participant in some trafficking scheme.  This is an issue that should have made President Ali blaze with fire, in that he had had enough with this dreadful contract.  Somebody must put a stop to this crassness.  If the Hess Corporation has plans that does not include staying in Guyana, then its 30% share of the Stabroek Block should be part of a premature relinquishment back to Guyana. The Financial Times will deliver President Ali’s comforting posture to the deep-pocketed, profit-oriented in the global investor community.  Both Exxon and Chevron’s boast the same names among their biggest shareholders: Vanguard and BlackRock, among other investor superheavyweights.  I don’t think that Vanguard’s Tim Buckley and BlackRock’s Larry Fink are going to stand idly and let either of the companies compete recklessly and undermine the lucrative Guyana franchise.

It is incomprehensible for any Guyanese to think that the coming of Chevron would be helpful to this country.  I urge connecting to Chevron’s record in Thailand and Ecuador.  Chevron is not the Hess Corporation.  Chevron is Exxon in disguise.  Take warning.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• Chevron, Financial Times, GHK Lall, President Irfaan Ali, Stabroek

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