‘Big parties cannot be trusted to run oil sector’ – Janki

Aug 12, 2025 News

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…hints at alternative, or hung Parliament

Kaieteur News – International Lawyer Melinda Janki said that the big political parties in Guyana: PPP, APNU and AFC cannot and should not be trusted to run the country’s oil sector and queried whether it was not time to find an alternative. She also asked whether voters are finally ready to give “our nation a Parliament in which no single party can dictate and destroy our future but all Parliamentarians have to work together in the national interest?”

In a letter to this newspaper on Monday Janki urged the electorate to ask of the new political parties exactly how they intend to stop ExxoxMobil getting away with the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) Guyana signed onto with the company. She lamented that Guyanese voters are currently plagued with a “slew of underwhelming aspirants”, and as such they should be asking all of the new parties to reveal their plans, on how they intend to stop the US oil giant from getting away with what she described as, “the current rapacious deal and from dictating policy that is detrimental to this country, the environment and earnings.”

The attorney made it clear that it is not necessary to ask the current or previous administration, namely the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) or A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC) these questions as their records demonstrate that they cannot and must not be trusted and put in charge of the country’s petroleum sector. “The APNU+AFC Coalition burdened Guyana with this ‘rapacious deal’ by which Exxon and partners take 87.5% of Guyana’s oil without paying Guyana for it.  Vikram Bharrat estimates that the Stabroek Block has around 11.6 billion barrels of oil. The oil market is volatile but taking a reasonable range of US$60 to US$90 a barrel, the oil in the Stabroek Block would, if sold on the market, fetch a price between US$696,000,000,000 and US$1,044,000,000,000,” she explained.

The attorney went on to say that the Stabroek Block operator and its partners will take 87.5% of that i.e.  between US$609,000,000,000 and US$913,500,000,000 and they do not buy the oil from Guyana. It is simply taken out to cover their expenses, whose figures are pretty controversial and their profit.

“They pay a royalty of 2% but since they are entitled to take as much free oil as they want for their own use, we do not know how much oil is in fact royalty free. Raphael Trotman’s response to public anger over this unprecedented transfer of wealth from a sovereign state to a foreign corporation was a ‘Nuremburg’ style bleat that he was following instructions from President Granger,” Janki stressed.

She reminded that while in opposition the PPP/C had lambasted the coalition for this very deal, with now Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo while he was Leader of the Opposition then saying, according to Hansard 21 December 2018, “Our incompetent government trudged in there unprepared and stuck us with a contract that would harm us for decades into the future. They sold our patrimony…”

However now in office she highlighted that the same PPP/C has, “defended Exxon and opposed and condemned patriotic citizens seeking to protect Guyana from Exxon. Attorney-General Anil Nandlall joined the Collins and Whyte v EPA and ExxonMobil Guyana, in order to oppose Justice Kissoon’s order for an unlimited parent company guarantee to indemnify Guyana.”

Nandlall has also criticised persons bringing cases to enforce the law in relation to Exxon’s activities which he has described as as ‘obstructionist’  and ‘meddlesome busybodies’ – a statement firmly rejected by Justice Sewnarine-Beharry who described them as ‘public benefactors’.

“President Ali in an underhand and secretive manner assented to an oil spill bill which was condemned nationally, regionally and internationally and is a crude unconstitutional attempt to protect ExxonMobil at the expense of Guyana. Guyanese voters should not be surprised. In the ExxonMobil Corporation Earnings Call 31 July 2020, Neil Chapman an Exxon Vice President, assured investors that, “What we know is that all parties in Guyana want to progress this development. Of course, we’re in regular contact with both President Granger and the APNU+AFC coalition, and we’re also in discussions with the PPP and Jagdeo and Irfan Ali. The PPP/C took office a few days later on 5 August,” she said.

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• big parties, Melinda Janki, newcomers, oil sector, political party, Vikram Bharrat

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