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Depletion Policy – per Jagdeo
Editorial…
Kaieteur News – The issue of a depletion policy has allowed Vice President Jagdeo to introduce a new verbal gimmick to Guyanese. “At some point in time”, the government will share its depletion policy. The concern is whether the government has one, or whatever it is being overhauled before it is presented to citizens. Wherever the condition of Guyana’s depletion policy, the man who seized management responsibility for himself in respect of Guyana’s huge oil and gas sector now hides behind “at some point in time.”
“At some point in time” is so vague that it could be anytime. Next year may be too soon on Jagdeo’s timetable, and his clever expression gives him the room to refer to his answer about a depletion policy, and how he hasn’t broken any promise, or violated any trust. This is the Jagdeo that Guyanese from all walks of life have come to know. There is the shiftiness and trickiness that a handful of citizens admire, and many stare at in disbelief. The disbelief knows no bounds, for this is a former head of state, who should have some standard by which he operates, and one from which he rarely, if ever, deviates. When the nation’s loudest voice should be its clearest one, Jagdeo has shown a marked preference for being the slipperiest. Ask him a straight question that calls for a straight answer, and almost nine out of ten times, Guyanese media professionals are rewarded with what has twists and turns. He gives himself the proverbial wiggle room, stretching space, giving himself a side door through which to dodge the issue before him, but which remains unaddressed and standing when he returns.
What could be so difficult with publishing the government’s oil depletion policy, if it has one? The PPPC Government either has one or it doesn’t. It has such a policy, and it takes pride in it, so much so that it puts it in the public domain. On the one hand, a robust depletion policy represents the level of prudence that the government’s leaders and thinkers, oil planners and managers, has invested for teasing out and harvesting the most benefits out of the booming oil and gas sector. On the other hand, it is how much care is obvious from the provisions in such a policy to ride the demand and price peaks and troughs of a volatile commodity, to sustain this precious asset the longest. Without a doubt, it is a delicate balance, especially for a new oil producing country such as Guyana, one that has so many urgent structural needs that demands huge sums of money. To have built a depletion policy on those two prongs would provide the best indication of a government that is caring for citizens, and not racing to comply with the ever-increasing demands of profit driven oil companies. Ramping up daily production levels that were already beyond recommended safety limits is heavily focused on an extraction state of mind, and has little to do relative to a depletion policy.
Could this be why Guyana’s vice president of oil is as skittish as a kitten, on delivering the oil depletion policy that the government has? Could this be why Jagdeo is now so coy with his newest concoction that is soaked in the slickness of “at some point in time…?” Unfortunately, this is par for the course for Jagdeo. He feeds the impression that he is a leader who seemingly, as reinforced by his own record, buys space for himself with these now worn-out contraptions of his, such as “at some point in time.” These are the developments that leave him looking like someone so desperate that he clutches at straws.
It is not the first time that Jagdeo has taken comfort in hiding behind the dodgy, and it wouldn’t be the last. One current glaring example is the Wales Gas-to-Energy project. It is already Guyana’s priciest at US$2B currently, with the highest probability of increases pending. To this point in time, taking a leaf from Jagdeo’s book, he cannot share with this nation the basis for this Wales project. He now does the same with his depletion policy that may be imaginary, another government farce.
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