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The Hess-Ali pact
Editorial…
Kaieteur News- John Hess, CEO of Hess Corporation, and 30% partner of ExxonMobil in Guyana’s rich Stabroek Block seemingly has a hot line to President Ali. There is no longer any doubt that Hess has the ear of Guyana’s president. What is worrying for Guyanese is whether he also has control of their president’s mind. The record is of the ExxonMobil partner speaking with authority and confidence on how much he and President Ali are of one mind, how the president tells him some inspiring things that are most profitable to his company and his interests.
According to CEO Hess, President Ali has given him every assurance, as good as committed to in writing, that the rich 2016 ExxonMobil contract will not be renegotiated. “No, we are not going to touch the production sharing agreement.” Hess is on solid ground, for those were the words of President Ali when asked about interest in starting the process of renegotiating the contract that he once cursed long and hard. What is so incredibly rich for ExxonMobil, the Hess Corporation, and the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company will not be touched, nor troubled in any way by Guyana. Hess is taking that as a blanket guarantee from Guyana’s president and was busy selling that to his listeners at the recent Goldman Sachs Research Energy, CleanTech and Utilities Conference. In a not-so-indirect manner, the oil companies are now sticking their noses in Guyana’s politics, with elections coming up later this year.
There was the Hess Corporation CEO selling his cosy relationship with Guyana’s President Ali, selling the rich prospects of investing in Guyana, as based on Guyana’s government and its opposition selling out their people. The previous APNU+AFC Coalition government sold out Guyanese in 2016 with the signing of the ExxonMobil contract. The succeeding PPP/C government has been even more committed to upholding the contract and selling out Guyanese for a song. President Ali sings a song called “sanctity of contract” that attracts the greatest contempt for it, reducing he and his government to looking like stooges for the oil companies. When Guyana’s President Ali sings in that manner, John Hess is all too willing to be the one-man chorus singing just as sweetly to lure more investors to feast on Guyanese oil wealth.
President Ali and ExxonMobil partner Hess speak a common language through the channels they use behind the scenes. The usually blustery public Ali apparently converts to sheeplike whispering in the ExxonMobil’s partner ear what impoverishes this country and enriches the coffers of foreign investors. Is it any surprise that Hess could proudly stand as a salesman for the PPP/C Government? “So, I see the political risk as being very low, and the fiscal risk being very, very low” was what Hess was selling at the Goldman Sachs forum. A blunt interpretation of what Hess said is ‘there is no need to worry about contract change, the president is on the side of investors, he is in the bag and under control, and that is not going to change’.
It is revealing how when Hess mentions President Ali how much confidence and swagger, he exudes. They have their own understanding, their own arrangements. This is what was emphasized before when Hess spoke of a “guarantee” that he had received from high up in the PPP/C Government. It was that in the matter of an unlimited parent company guarantee case before the local judiciary, the ruling was going to favour the oil companies. How could such a ‘guarantee’ be given by anyone considering the independence of the judiciary? Why would anyone, any government official, any Guyanese politician give such a guarantee on what could be very harmful to Guyana’s environment, its economy, and its citizens?
John Hess is virtually laughing at Guyanese, mocking their calls for renegotiation of the 2016 contract. He knows who is at the beck and call of the oil companies. He sees who is fighting for the ExxonMobil-led consortium. He understands why he can speak authoritatively about low political risk and “the fiscal risk being very, very low”. He has his sources; he knows who is captive to the commands of ExxonMobil and it is not the PPP/C Government alone.
(The Hess-Ali pact)
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