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Oct 27, 2024 Editorial

 Editorial…

ExxonMobil Guyana Ltd (EMGL) Vice President and Business Services Manager, Phillip Rietema, captured developments in Guyana that delight his company no end.  “We have six sanctioned projects, just (to) put it in context. I don’t think there’s anywhere in the world where we’ve been able to go so quickly from discovery to production to now six sanctioned projects.  This is unbelievable, what drives the executives of ExxonMobil into spasms of ecstasy.  What Mr. Rietema said at the recently concluded International Business Conference held here is also unbelievable relative to the circumstances in Guyana.  This is night and day, with the American oil supergiant thrilled with all the brightness coming from Guyana for its profit margins.  Simultaneously, it has been a nightmare for Guyanese as they absorb the tragedies resulting from their oil ownership.

Mr. Rietema cannot begin to imagine how right he is.  For any oil company to get one big project after the other approved so quickly must be unprecedented in the century plus history of oil.  The oil projects are being approved at such a rapid rate that they are almost running into each other.  It goes without saying that Guyana can’t keep abreast, given the scale of activities involved.  Every Guyanese knows that this country labours under a terrible handicap.  There are not enough skilled locals to be on the offshore production stations to monitor, to contribute, and to deliver at the kind of level that this country needs.  There are too few Guyanese with the accounting and analytical and scientific skills and track record to stay on top of the growing and expanding oil sector.  Notwithstanding this known and major deficit, the PPPC Government, with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo in full control of the oil sector, has been approving projects as quickly as ExxonMobil dreams them up.

The company has not been in the oil business for so long and didn’t learn anything, including how to take advantage of the conditions that are begging for exploiting.  Guyana is woefully short of the requisite skills to manage its oil wealth efficiently, with any degree of confidence.  From the company’s perspective, it is an opportunity that cannot be allowed to pass by.  When ExxonMobil loads up a Guyana that has its back to the wall (and that is over its head on what it needs to know about the oil business), then the new host producing oil country experiences more than just losing sight of its wealth.  Guyana is losing still more control of its oil sector and falling farther and farther behind in knowing what ExxonMobil is really doing at its offshore facilities.  EMGL’s Rietema is in a position to boast because his company has six big oil projects in his hands.  On the other hand, it is a case of unparalleled insanity (even complete political stupidity) to continue to approve more oil projects, six in total so far, when Guyana is barely in a position to oversee three such projects, even two of them, possibly.  The complexity of the oil business and the broad range of oil operations would caution the prudent in any government to go slowly, grow in knowledge, and get a better feel for the ExxonMobil-Guyana partnership.  All these would accrue to Guyana’s benefit, rushing pell-mell ahead is knowingly contributing to one’s on exploitation, or worse.  The facts on the ground speak to where Guyana is, do not comfort.

Guyana has a pile of sensitive oil audits to get done.  Billions of US dollars in expenses are involved but the PPP/C Government is approving projects like there is no tomorrow.  Old audit findings are unresolved, but it is as if those don’t matter.  ExxonMobil is continually raising the bar on how many barrels of oil it is pumping daily, but the kind of human and technological monitoring that Guyana should be doing for itself is sadly lacking.  Only the reckless and the probably unconcerned would keep on approving multibillion dollar projects in such circumstances.  The PPP/C Government used to rage against the ExxonMobil contract.  Now, it is the fiercest protector of that same contract, with more new oil projects approved.  It is why Philip Rietema had such a good time at that conference.

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