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John Hess – Guyana oil information Minister
Editorial…
Kaieteur News- Who now represents the best source of information for Guyanese on their massive oil wealth? Sadly, it is not President Ali, nor is it Vice President Jagdeo, the self-appointed national oil leader, who grabbed that lucrative portfolio for himself. The opposition is not of much help, not a group that inspires confidence in what the real intentions are with this great national patrimony. Without knowing it, Guyanese have stumbled on a source of oil information that is a good as there could be, and which gives them a gauge of what is really going on. Hess Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer, John Hess, gets the honors of being that oil information source: direct or subtle, as the circumstances may require, and in a steady trickle. Being a 30% partner in the ExxonMobil led consortium only gives what he says added heft. He is near to developments; he has good grounds for what he is saying.
The political risk in Guyana as such relates to oil is “very low.” This says one of two things. Hess made a clearheaded assessment of where his company’s investment in Guyana stands, based on his reading of the local situation. Especially the key local players, i.e., the politicians whose words and postures, plus their attitudes, have considerable weight. Or, considering his access to those same leading Guyanese politicians, he has been given some sort of assurance that little is going to change relative to the crucial 2016 oil contract. Hess may impress some as being too talkative, one who speaks at inconvenient moments, while sharing what is best left among friends and co-conspirators. On the other hand, to date, he hasn’t said anything about the whole outlook with this oil, from a political perspective, that doesn’t add up, what strikes observant citizens as having much substance.
When he says that the political risks are “very low”, it is with the authority of someone who has been given what almost amounts to a guarantee. The oil contract will not be touched, fought against. Political risks that are considered to be “very low” should not cast concerned eyes at the government alone. The opposition does not escape being seen as part of that suspicious brew. Hess has shown that he speaks fluently, he does not fly off at the mouth. There is a pointedness to whatever he says, with confidence to match. The questions are how should local thinkers read John Hess’s lips. And what to do with the conclusions that inevitably arise.
It is no secret that the government is on the friendliest terms with the ExxonMobil consortium. Many citizens think that it is too cozy, too much of a fraternity that does not have Guyana’s interests at heart, but what, in fact, prioritizes the interests of the oil companies operating offshore. The opposition cannot be left out of this corporate-political equation, since its own positions have so much that is wanting. The opposition has been too careful, as if walking in a minefield, where there is the constant fear that one misstep, one misplaced word, could spell disaster. Without any input from Hess about political risks being “very low”, the government and opposition have raised eyebrows, and stirred impatience and anger, at how guarded both have been, when the 2016 oil contract is under the microscope.
Why do they conduct themselves in this all-too-careful, self-protective, manner? Where is it that they don’t want to go in terms of the contract? What is it that both the government and opposition, in their own separate discussions and positions, have committed to the offshore oil consortium that as good as eliminates political risk? The risk of intervention and interference with that oil contract, the risk of any change to it, material or otherwise. Regardless of the answers to those questions, Guyanese could be sure of one thing. When John Hess speaks on Guyana’s oil, he is not spouting hot air. There is a track record here that has his name on it, has its own language in it. It has been of political cooperation, if not collusion, and it has been of political surrender. “Very low” political risk says it all, when all the verbal sparring, hedging, are done.
(John Hess – Guyana oil information Minister)
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- Guyanese, Hess Corporation’s Chief Executive, massive oil wealth, President Ali, Vice President Jagdeo
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