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New oil reserves – the real thing

Aug 04, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – US oil superstar ExxonMobil has insisted that Guyana’s oil reserves stand at 11B barrels of oil equivalents, which is what it knows as of now.  Recently, world renowned S&P Global estimated that current reserves in Guyana are at 18.7B barrels.  Up until recently, Guyana’s oil boss, Vice President Jagdeo said that all he knew was that ExxonMobil was seeking to capitalize on the proven oil assets already in its hands, and that how much new oil has been found requires working through an appraisal process that takes time.  Then, just last week, Jagdeo ended up talking from the other side of his mouth.  The nation will soon be updated, within a week, on what its current oil reserves are.

What should Guyanese expect from ExxonMobil, as the new oil reserves, considering how much of a tricky partner it has proven to be?  First, it was that the company’s time was occupied with maximizing its haul from Guyana’s oilfields, and that appraisals for the eight new discoveries were in motion, but on the back burner.  A slow boil it was going to be.  However, it seems that there has been a change of heart, possibly priorities, in ExxonMobil’s think tank, because it is going to handover to the Government of Guyana, the new numbers from the new discoveries.  Are those numbers (billions of barrels of oil) going to be from all eight discoveries, or only a couple of them, the earlier ones, the ones with smaller amounts of discovered oil?

We don’t claim to know, but it is surprising that the new discoveries by ExxonMobil were so information challenged. Real-time feeds from its offshore operations go to company headquarters in Houston, Texas.  Yet, all ExxonMobil’s vaunted calculations and appraisals have turned out to be such a laborious and time-consuming exercise.  In other words, what ought to have been a routine has now become this whole new song and dance masquerade about “monetizing” existing Guyana oil assets and not getting bogged down by a lengthy appraisals process.  That is, until that could no longer be denied, or held back from the Guyanese public.  We point to the latter and ask if ExxonMobil did its part and delivered the number of new barrels of oil in each of the eight new discoveries, but the PPPC Government kept that information to itself, while keeping Guyanese in the dark.  There are too many loose ends in this new oil issue that prompt questions still not answered by either ExxonMobil or the Government of Guyana.  It is obvious that something of significance has occurred behind the scenes that lead to this about face from Guyana’s oilman Jagdeo.  He didn’t know because he had nothing, but now he knows because he has been given something.

Should Guyanese hold their breath, given that Jagdeo has proven himself to be less than a credible oil leader?  Can he be relied upon to give Guyanese the whole story and the real story relative to new oil reserves found (or the total current oil reserves)?  Or is it going to be one of his slick productions that raises more questions, which leave him doing his best to giving straight answers?  Jagdeo has been very stingy in parting with persuasive answers on this oil sector.  He gives the appearance of someone battling against invisible forces that tie his hands, and for a chief oil policymaker his standard has been weakness and powerlessness.  It is a sad state, a terribly degrading situation, when the man who appointed himself to be in charge of Guyana’s precious oil sector is reduced to being tongue-tied.  Apparently, his hands aren’t tied behind his back on an issue as how much new oil has been found.  Jagdeo should have been a force of nature with Guyana’s massive oil wealth.  Unfortunately, Guyanese have now grown accustomed to a leader who is now a shadow of himself.  The lengthening record is of a leader who has condemned himself to cursing out professionals in the independent media for pressing him too hard on oil matters.

After much back and forth, and no little amount of bad blood resulting, current oil reserves will be updated.  May the real reserves be shared.

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