Jagdeo defends not having a petroleum commission

Feb 10, 2025 News

Kaieteur News- Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has brushed aside criticisms from opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) over his government’s failure to establish the long-promised Petroleum Commission and to renegotiate the Exxon Stabroek Block deal.

Jagdeo defends not having a petroleum commission

Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) David Patterson

Opposition MPs David Patterson and Shurwayne Holder during the just concluded budget debates flayed the Vice President and others for backpedalling on their promise to establish a Petroleum Commission, a regulatory body meant to oversee the oil and gas sector.

The Petroleum Commission Bill, which would pave the way for an independent regulator, has remained in limbo despite the People’s Progressive Party previously identifying it as a priority. With the Ali administration now in its fifth year, the bill remains unimplemented.

In his response, at a press conference last Thursday Jagdeo asserted that he has already addressed the matter multiple times. “So and the Petroleum Commission is, I dealt with that 100 times before, the Petroleum Commission, I dealt with it 100 times before I don’t even need to deal with it again, but it shows they have nothing to say, really.”

In August 2020, Vice President Jagdeo was reported as saying that the body would be set up in six months and the Attorney General, Anil Nandlall told the media in 2021, that the Natural Resource Ministry’s legal department, along with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel attached to his office, was working on the document to facilitate the change which the new Government wanted to the draft Petroleum Commission Bill that was left behind by the previous administration. Vice President Jagdeo went from stating that the Commission would be set up within months to claiming that the Commission is not necessary. At an August 2024 press conference, Jagdeo said, “There is no magic with a Petroleum Commission…There is no magic, we have given our agencies the tools to manage the sector.”

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo

MP Holder during his presentation in the National Assembly stated, “The PPP has betrayed the trust of the Guyanese people on this matter. In opposition and even in the first few months after 2020, both the Minister of Natural Resources and Vice President promised to set up the Petroleum Commission, but after becoming comfortable and with hands on the oil money, they turned their back on the people.”

For his part, MP Patterson had also criticized the government’s management of the oil and gas sector and highlighted areas it has failed to deliver on. He too highlighted the government’s failure to establish the long-promised Petroleum Commission. “The PPP are very comfortable with the ‘do nothing approach,’ while the oil resources of our country is being squandered away,” Patterson said.

Moreover, both Holder and Patterson also called out the government for failing to honor their 2020 campaign promise to renegotiate the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) that was signed by the previous APNU+AFC government with ExxonMobil.

The deal the Coalition signed agrees for ExxonMobil and its partners, Hess and CNOOC to pay Guyana a 2% royalty on oil revenues, allows for the oil companies to recover 75% of the revenue to cover cost before the remaining goes to profit-sharing, and caters for Guyana to cover the oil companies’ taxes.

“And the elephant in the room is renegotiation. These are the corrupt people who were part of that negotiation, who stuck us with the contract now, pretending to be national in their orientation. So, those are just some of the things I wanted to say in the budget that has come out,” Jagdeo responded.

Notably, the contract has been widely criticised for giving the oil companies a tax-free ride, the high-cost recovery rate and lack of ring-fencing provision. This has led to calls for renegotiation from various quarters. However, the PPP government has maintained that it has never promised to renegotiate the Exxon deal and said that they will abide by the terms of the deal and not seek a renegotiation.

(Jagdeo defends not having a petroleum commission)

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Bharrat Jagdeo, opposition, Petroleum Commission, renegotiation

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