“They are giving away our patrimony” – Patterson says as Govt. approves 7th oil project without additional benefits

Sep 25, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News – While the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Coalition was accused of “selling out” the nation’s patrimony in the lopsided deal with ExxonMobil and partners, the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government is now being blazed for “giving away” Guyana’s wealth.

Former Minister and Member of Parliament (MP), David Patterson in an interview with Kaieteur News blasted the administration for handing ExxonMobil another license to produce oil in the Stabroek Block, without seeking additional fiscal benefits for the country.

On Monday, government signalled a greenlight to ExxonMobil for its Hammerhead project, a seventh offshore development in the Stabroek Block.

Patterson believes that while the approval is being celebrated, the government has essentially given away the nation’s resources to the American oil giant, by failing to secure any additional revenue.

According to him, “While the government will be celebrating the approval of the seventh development, in reality what they are doing is giving away our patrimony with no additional fiscal benefits to the country.”

The Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC) was keen to note that Guyana is no longer an emerging market, with four Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels (FPSOs) in operation, almost six years after first oil.

He told this publication, “The conditions that prevailed in approving that first FPSO no longer exist – this and all other future developments should be renegotiated to ensure greater benefits and safeguards to the citizens.”

Patterson who previously shadowed the Minister of Natural Resources, in the Opposition benches of the National Assembly, argued that a time must come where citizens say to Exxon and the GoG “enough is enough.”

“They (Exxon) are making a lot of profit. The country is making a lot of money, but we are not receiving it,” he stated. With the startup of its fourth project- Yellowtail- in August this year, Exxon is set to produce 900,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).

Meanwhile, shifting his attention to the environmental aspect of the offshore oil and gas operations, Patterson mocked that the seventh project will proceed along the “traditional lane” where the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approves a specific rate of production which will later be exceeded by Exxon.

To this end, he noted, “It makes a sham of the whole EIA. You doing public consultation that you’re going for 250,000 barrels, but then within 6 months, you’ve exceeded that nameplate capacity. Of course, the field development document not even available. So, it’s just simply a continuation of this stewardship.”

The former MP added that while Guyanese are happy for the continuation of oil production, the fact remains that key environmental safeguards continue to be trampled on while government allows the multinational oil giant to reap the hog of this country’s resources.

‘Sold our patrimony’

A passionate and almost angry Bharrat Jagdeo while functioning as Leader of the Opposition, under the APNU/AFC tenure in office said the Coalition “sold” the country to “foreigners” because the administration failed to include ring-fencing to shore up profits from the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with ExxonMobil and partners.

“They sold us out to the foreigners. The oil companies, every time there is a find out there, our people should be sad because nothing comes our way. We are gonna renegotiate those contracts because that’s not what we had in mind,” Jagdeo said.

He added, “When we were in the early days, we were coaxing the people (ExxonMobil) to go along. They (Coalition) came into office – three billion barrels of proven reserves and they gave up zero royalties, no taxes, no ring-fencing.”

The General Secretary of the PPP and chief policymaker for the oil and gas sector has now changed his stance on these issues. In fact, President Irfaan Ali made it clear that he has no interest in writing Exxon to renegotiate the lopsided Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), signed by the previous administration.

Stakeholders have argued that due to the drastic changes in the Stabroek Block, Guyana would be well within its right as a sovereign nation to demand greater benefits for its resources. In 2016 when the agreement with ExxonMobil and its partners were made, the country’s oil reserves stood at a just three billion barrels. Today the Stabroek Block is estimated to hold more than 11.6 billion barrels of oil.

This means that the reserves have almost quadrupled while the country continues to receive a thin slice of the pie, with the oil companies enjoying over 85% of the revenue generated each month. According to the 2016 PSA, Exxon can deduct up to 75% of Guyana’s oil monthly to cover its expenses. The remaining 25% is split with Guyana equally as profits, with the country earning an additional 2% from the contractor’s share as royalty.

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• Approval, benefits, EIA, Hammerhead, patrimony, seventh project

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