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Stability

Dec 06, 2024 Editorial, News

…Editorial 

Kaieteur News- Thanks to ExxonMobil’s Guyana President, Alistair Routledge, stability is back in the local oil vocabulary.

ExxonMobil’s Guyana boss is not the only one selling his stability package. A new investor group, one that hasn’t been in Guyana as long as Routledge is also talking up stability. The International Investor Group, Inc. Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Levi Wilson Odoe, spoke warmly of stability and what it means for his entity. We are receptive to their frankness, but there is a conflict. Such may not matter to either Mr. Routledge or Dr. Odoe, but it does to Guyanese. The stability that they endorse so boldly is what lends powerfully to the instability stirring in Guyanese.

When the supposedly richest citizens in the world statistically are forced to grasp at straws in a daily struggle to survive, great passions spark into life.  When groups are hailed as partners, but only their side enjoy the richness that is the inheritance of Guyanese, then the groundwork has been laid for rage.  There is tremendous reluctance to look upon those who benefit at their expense (Guyanese) with goodwill.  The stability so sought after by ExxonMobil and others, on their terms exclusively, fosters internal instability in more segments in Guyana’s demographics.  The political and social are rife with acrimony against those now looked upon as nothing but rank exploiters of the worst sort.

Guyana’s senior oil partner, ExxonMobil has a champion in Alistair Routledge to represent its interests here, extract the last drop of juice from this country’s patrimony.  In a recent podcast, he had this to say, “I think what’s critical around the world to support an industry that has a long horizon for investments-20 years, 30 years plus- is stability.

It’s always super important to us to ensure that we are investing with confidence, that the rules aren’t going to change, that our investors can have that ability to look out when they make an investment decision, know that it is going to materialise.”  ExxonMobil, through its local leader is standing and saying what results in the most benefits for his company and himself.  The longer and louder that he holds to the company line (“stability”), the better that both do.

It is worthy to note that what ExxonMobil is emphasizing through Routledge is not anything new.  Investors, regardless of their area of enterprise, are delighted by a stable political, social, and regulatory environment.  Stability makes sense, for it is the best atmosphere for commercial activity and prosperity.  But stability, we would argue, is not a one-sided proposition.  It has to work both ways, and the only way for that cherished stability to be deep-seated and not superficial is when the playing field is seen as fair. Fairness fuels trust, and fewer and fewer are the Guyanese who look upon the name ExxonMobil and, sad to say, Alistair Routledge, with any degree of confidence.  Instead of seeing an authentic partner in ExxonMobil, one worthy of the stability for which they yearn, a colonizer is what settles in Guyanese minds.  What stability then, and for how long, and with whom, other than the local collaborators gathered around the company?

What a growing number of Guyanese are thinking and clamouring for is not revolutionary.  No Guyanese is calling for nationalization of the oil sector and expelling ExxonMobil.  Guyanese are pressing for a fair share, with the new Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) developed by the PPP/C Government representing that fair beginning.  How does that destabilize ExxonMobil 20- and 30- year vision, when it would still be profiting enormously from Guyana’s cheap oil, even at very low oil prices?  An honest partner is best advised to listen, act accordingly.

Meanwhile, on behalf of his shallow water investment group Dr. Odle also weighed in with his two cents about stability: “I like stable government, because we are business people… Any government that comes, as long as you create an enabling environment to do business, we are happy.” Guyanese would also be happy when they are enabled by their oil wealth.  Dr. Odle’s group is tied to the new PSA’s 10% royalty and taxes.  It must be the same for ExxonMobil.  Stability could then prevail on both sides of Guyana’s oil partnership.

(Stability)

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