Former President Ramotar on 2 percent

Oct 31, 2025 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – Several weeks ago, former president Donald Ramotar made the headlines. The 2% royalty that Guyana is getting from ExxonMobil for its oil is not acceptable. It is a rare moment when men who have made their mark as politicians speak unambiguously, lay their cards on the table in a manner that leaves no room for speculation or uncertainty.

We commend this former Guyana head of state for drilling to the heart of this reprehensible 2016 ExxonMobil-Guyana oil contract, and sharing his thoughts. We think of how inspiring it would be to Guyanese if current national leaders, President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo (himself a former president) were to summon the courage to take a similar unequivocal stance relative to the ExxonMobil contract. If only they could discover some degree of straightforward patriotic fervor to call out that pathetic 2% royalty, make political expediency a lesser calling, and fight for some more royalties and some taxes, how much of a difference that could deliver. Instead of building toward such a mindset, Guyanese two most prominent leaders currently are both content to surrender to the sellout of “sanctity of contract.”

Former President Ramotar, risking the wrath of his party friends, went in the opposite direction, when he directed his glare at that foul 2% royalty. When there is a royalty rate as low as 2%, that 2016 contract can with justification be said not to be the ExxonMobil-Guyana contract, but the ExxonMobil contract. We at this paper assert this, because that 2% royalty is so skimpy, as to mean almost nothing. For sure, there are some US dollars that ExxonMobil deposits in Guyana’s New York-housed Natural Resource Fund, but it is so paltry that it qualifies as an insult, a loud laugh in the face of citizens. Donald Ramotar has a problem with it, and before him so also former Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, the government official who signed the contract. When Guyanese who reached such heights, and know so much more about the ExxonMobil contract could take such a stand against it, then that leaves President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo in an embarrassing place. Why have they set their face so much against touching this contract that is so disadvantageous to Guyana?

It is the same ExxonMobil contract that at one time attracted so much hostility and harsh condemnation from these two men. Yet, today they yield before what they must know, even in their sleep. As Mr. Ramotar said, 2% is not acceptable. We take a less diplomatic position and assert that the 2% royalty is a rip-off masquerading as a contract. There is no place for 2% royalty, which has already been around too long, and it is time that it goes, is replaced by a percentage that gives some level of dignity to Guyanese.

Donald Ramotar came up with an idea that has the positive about it. Oil contracts should be done in a unified manner, with the CARICOM umbrella functioning as the best available vehicle. We think that it is a submission that has much going for it. When countries in the region decide to hustle on their own for what they believe is the best deal, they are setting themselves up for failure. When a country operates alone, it has just made itself into a sitting duck waiting to be plucked and then stripped to the bone. As an example, if Guyana was operating as part of a standing regional contract negotiation framework, can anyone imagine that the result would be that 2% royalty figure being the result? Though it is an old cliché, there is strength in unity, still holds much water.

Realistically, we recognize the difficulties that block the way towards what Guyana’s former president has recommended coming to fruition. Take the matter of the ongoing Guyana-Venezuela border dispute, when some regional leaders forgot about CARICOM and prioritised their national self-interests. If something as clear-cut and defining as that, then the probability of regional cohesion on oil and other standout natural resources is remote, at best. One Guyana Government got this country into this losing situation, another can get it out. It calls for leadership will that isn’t there.

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2 percent, 2% royalty, Editorial, ExxonMobil, Former President Ramotar

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Former President Ramotar on 2 percent

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