ExxonMobil and cost carousels

Jul 02, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – There is a method to ExxonMobil’s measures relative to project expenses. It may seem like madness to the unlearned, but the American oil behemoth skills at keeping its Guyana oil pump primed are never more obvious with what is going on in the unbelievable oil treasure storehouse that is the Stabroek Block. When Guyanese think that they are making headway with tens of US billions in expenses repaid, ExxonMobil keeps the concert going. It is another oil project put into the bucket for deficient Guyana which is severely incapacitated. The company is not only striking it rich, almost with ludicrous ease, with one underwater reservoir after another pursued. But it couldn’t ask for a weaker, more cowardly gang of national political leaders to partner with it and remove all local obstacles that stand in the way of its progress.

At the end of 2023, ExxonMobil has recovered about US$19B out of US$29B, it has spent/invested so far. The recovery or repayment of over 65% of ExxonMobil’s investment ordinarily would be good reason for Guyanese to relish the thought of more oil money coming to them. The 75% cost recovery condition from the top of oil revenues serves as a huge drain on this country’s piece of the half and half profit-sharing arrangement. Now, instead of a mere US$10B amount due to be recovered by ExxonMobil, a new project is in the works. ExxonMobil knows how to keep the pot boiling with those multibillion US dollar oil projects rolling in with little spacing between them. The well-named seventh project, Hammerhead, is sure to drive a nail into the head of whatever thoughts Guyanese entertained about a bigger payday due to a lower amount owed to ExxonMobil. This is how this slick American oil company keeps its Guyana oil wheels well-greased, so that its profits just climbing to newer heights.

Presently, the cost of the Hammerhead project has not been released may even be still to be finalized by the company. It is strange for a company with the financial smarts of an ExxonMobil not to know with some degree of confidence how much Hammerhead will require it to invest in Guyana. It could be that ExxonMobil is playing around with the billions, while deciding how much is too much to slap on Guyana. We at this publication take this position because of this so-called American oil partner that Guyana teamed up with. Even a cursory glance at the record will show that many of its actions have not been inspiring in terms of how much it is committed to honest and transparent dealings with Guyana. Project expenses are one such area, audit findings another, the number of new barrels of oil discovered, the number of barrels of oil pumped daily (auditors stonewalled), and the company’s general contract dealings have all been found wanting. Considering all this, what Guyanese have is not a trusted oil partner, but a dangerous high seas pirate. In the manner of the pirates of old, and if ExxonMobil has its way, Guyana would be slashed and savaged and totally severed from any profitable participation in its oil patrimony. ExxonMobil has been that brutal, that depravedly indifferent to the economic damage it has been, and is doing, in Guyana.

This Hammerhead oil project simply helps the expense ball to go on rolling, while ExxonMobil has an extended opportunity to kick Guyanese all over the place. The government of this country is so asinine, so whipped into shape by ExxonMobil that it continues to approve new oil projects while seriously handicapped in managing those that already exist. Leaders in the PPP/C Government have themselves admitted repeatedly that Guyana is hampered by its capacity voids. Yet, the same weak-kneed leaders have no problem with going through the motions with a questionable approval process and handing ExxonMobil one project after the other on a platter. The political gurus play games with themselves as if Guyana is making strides in reducing cost recovery obligations and building capacity, while the opposite is happening.

There are too many projects running simultaneously; too few Guyanese eyes are monitoring the projects. And, while there is this mirage that the billions in cost obligations are reduced, new billions are added leaving Guyanese high and dry.

billions, ExxonMobil, Guyana, relative, Stabroek Block

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ExxonMobil and cost carousels

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