ExxonMobil’s cash cow

Nov 19, 2025 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – ExxonMobil has a cash cow in Guyana, and it is milked and milked to the fullest extent possible. It is not the half and half profit-sharing formula that leaves Guyana with a dollar number that is a fraction of a half, while ExxonMobil’s profit portion rises and rises, leading to a wider margin between what the company and this country get.

It’s a machine that is a giant vacuum cleaner sucking up billions upon billions of US dollars in cost recovery.

Cost recovery is the mystery of which Guyana knows so little about, not even with the help of auditors, reportedly not the best that money can buy, or what gives the best returns on money paid.

Cost recovery for ExxonMobil is like a lottery that is won every day, one that is like a cash cow that just keeps producing and producing, with more good times in store. Why spoil the flow of rich, bottom line enhancing, milk, by putting the brakes on cost recovery, ad let a good thing go to waste?

Cost recovery in the first six months of this year, as claimed by ExxonMobil, settled at an astronomical US$9.768B. In Guyana dollars, that is an even more mindboggling two trillion dollars, and this is when an exchange rate of GY$205:US$1 is used. Even Guyanese who have never held a US dollar in their hands know that the exchange rate is not $205 Guyana to $1 US. And that is for six months only in 2025, not the whole of this year.

The US$9.768B cost recovery haul by the American oil supergiant for just six months is almost one and a half times this country’s 2025 national budget, the biggest on record to date. It should emphasize that what ExxonMobil has in Guyana is the most liquids of cash cows, and some corporate accounting systems that devour its milk like some unsated beast.

The Government of Guyana doesn’t have the clearest idea of what it is paying for in those fresh, new billions in cost recovery. To make matters even more unsatisfactory, the government seems not to care about shining the sharpest spotlight on the increasing billions in expenses.

It should be probing deeply for accounting gimmicks and other ways in which ExxonMobil may have taken advantage of this country’s cluelessness and recklessness, but the government isn’t. Many have commented, and not in the most reassuring way possible, about the interest and drive of the auditors to peer skillfully into the haze of the billions of cost recovery submissions from ExxonMobil. Guyana gets what it gets from its auditors, and that is part of this free-for-all where expenses from the company are concerned.

There have been responsible criticisms of audit effort and audit output. It seems to the experts that the auditors hired by Guyana operated with their hands tied behind their backs.

It seems that when they were so handicapped from the inception that the most that they could do, or were given the greenlight to do, was skim the surface of billions in cost recovery from ExxonMobil. The findings give some confirmation of the weaknesses in past schemes of work and their related drilling down. How far did they go, were allowed to go, and how much they followed up with what was uncovered?

There was a development that indicated the games likely being played. In one situation, ExxonMobil personnel actually blocked Guyana’s auditors from accessing areas that were declared to be off-limits to their scrutiny. Where does that leave the overall integrity of cost recovery billions?

In one form or another, and under different names, ExxonMobil has been in the oil business on a global scale for over a century and a half. Guyana is a newcomer, a babe in the woods, in the oil business, with just over a half of a decade under its belt.

It is a terrible imbalance in every aspect of Guyana’s short oil history that places it at a great disadvantage. To compare the Guyana-ExxonMobil environment to that of a David and Goliath situation doesn’t even represent a start. Think of a lion with a puppy trapped in its paws, and that’s ExxonMobil and Guyana with cost recovery.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

cash cow, Editorial, ExxonMobil, profit

One thought on “ExxonMobil’s cash cow”

Jacob November 20, 2025 at 7:05 pm

If ExxonMobil mobile earned approximately 10 billion dollars in the first 6 months of this year, how in the world is Guyana’s share a measly 0ne billion dollars? What gall does it take to administer such justice and where are the geniuses with the brains to seek justice in this situation.They must be unable or unwilling to do what must be done to stop the steal by ExxonMobil, if not, seek out more competent and qualified people to work with the government to correct this appalling and disgusting mess. Is it any wonder that the people of Guyana are struggling to make ends meet due to the excessive cost of living? Wake up Guyana and do what is equitable for the country and it’s people. While it is imperative to correct the infrastructure it’s is equal and more critical that the interst of the people comes first so they can have a clear mind to work on projects for the country.

Comments are closed.

Latest News