Nine years after Guyana discovered oil, Norton says now studying sector

Aug 07, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – Guyana’s opposition leader, Aubrey Norton during an interview with Globe Span on Monday night revealed that he had only recently started studying and researching the country’s oil and gas sector to come up with answers and solutions to issues.

“When I took the job (as opposition leader), the truth is I wasn’t paying attention to oil and gas but I recognise very early that I had to put significant focus on oil and gas,” Norton said while responding to a question posed to him on his strengths and weaknesses as Opposition Leader.

“I began to do the research and study and so I think that the ability to study these issues that emerge and the situation that emerge and come up with answers is a strength”, Norton added.  The Opposition Leader said too that he has always sought to be rounded in every area as a politician. “I believe as well like anyone else, I have the intellectual capacity having served as a university lecturer having done political science, communications, international relations, I think I have sought to be rounded.”

Guyana first discovered oil some nine-years ago in 2015 and Norton took over the reigns as opposition leader in 2021. Since taking over as leader, Kaieteur News has asked him on many occasions about his ideas and plans to manage Guyana’s lucrative oil and gas sector.

Norton and the PNCR have made some strong statements on policy issues relating to oil and gas and called out the government for badly managing the sector but refuses to share his plans on how he would better manage Guyana’s oil resources and get more out of a lopsided Stabroek Block deal the country signed with ExxonMobil in 2015.

He had said too that he has a team of experts advising him on oil and gas but won’t reveal their names. According to a Kaieteur News article published in March this year, Norton had said that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo will steal his party’s ideas of running the country’s oil industry. Kaieteur News had asked during one of his press conferences in March to name the members of his party’s oil and gas committee and their qualifications, as well as the body’s plan for the sector. Norton responded, “I have answered the first question before many times, no I will not say who comprise our oil and gas committee. I can say to you that it has expertise both at home and abroad.” As a seasoned politician, Norton said he knows for a fact that “people will seek to access those persons and influence their positions.”

In fact, he had said that the government (PPP/C) would even “bribe itself”, so the Opposition has to employ strategic methods to protect these individuals. “In some regard, you are dealing with a government that would bribe itself. So why would I tell a government like this who are the members of our oil and gas group. I wouldn’t and I have no apologies for it,” he said in response to Kaieteur News question.

When it comes to the committee’s plans for the sector, the Opposition Leader had explained, “I have said that we will release our oil and gas plans at the appropriate time. Let me remind people what is happening. I went to Mocha at a public meeting and said the APNU/AFC in government having noted that diabetes and hypertension are critical and that there is a certain amount of health problems here, I said at a meeting in Mocha, APNU/AFC government will put resources into helping the average man to access those health services.”

Soon after, Norton said, government revealed plans to offset medical tests for cervical cancer. He also noted that the Opposition announced a rent-to own-scheme and a people-centered development that government has now adopted. To this end, he said, “We are clear that we have to time when we release whatever we want to release. I can say to you we have clear plans and we have been saying some of the things we will do in the oil sector and Kaieteur News and Stabroek News covered them, so it’s not like if we haven’t put plans out there and so I am saying to you at the appropriate time, we will put our plans out there.”

Nevertheless, the Opposition Leader has shared his stance on some of the burning issues of the oil and gas sector, one them being a renegotiation of the Stabroek Block oil deal. Norton is not prepared to renegotiate the deal but wants more for Guyana out of the same contract. At one of his press conferences in February, he said, “I have said from the inception that we believe the law the contract provides for us to engage Exxon to get a better deal for the Guyanese people.  We have no problem with that. I have also said that no one will choose our language; we are not compelled to say renegotiate. It has connotations way past its appearance and so I want to make it very clear, no one is going to choose the language we use on this question.”

The Opposition has also called on ExxonMobil to provide Guyana with unlimited parent company guarantee in the case of an oil spill, something that the government is not willing to do. Norton’s party is also in support of a Petroleum Commission being established to independently monitor the sector, something which Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo said is not really necessary. On Monday, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) issued a statement calling on the Government to tell Guyana what are the interest rates ExxonMobil is charging the country for its ongoing operations off shore.

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• Aubrey Norton, ExxonMobil, Law, Leader of Opposition, Oil and Gas

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