Local Content changes

Nov 21, 2025 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – Guyana’s oil partner is happy with its contributions to Local Content fulfillment. The PPPC Government takes the contrasting position that more has to be done with Local Content by ExxonMobil. Country Head Alistair Routledge spoke for ExxonMobil, while chief policymaker Bharrat Jagdeo responded for Guyana. It is less a clash of the titans, and more of what both sides have to do, so that Guyanese share (local content participation) in their booming oil and gas sector increases. We at this paper hope that it is not just a battle of positioning in the public arena, but represents real movement, so that more Guyanese feel and taste their oil riches, through more local content involvement.

Like everything else about its presence, this oil partnership that is such a one-sided partnership, in Guyana, ExxonMobil appears to be set in its ways. Local content, simply being the latest example of the company’s stubbornness. “As it is always, the question is, is it a good thing or not to have, you know, those fixed targets. They can be both motivational, but they can also tend to lead to over investment because people rush in saying, well, I’m guaranteed to get work if I invest in that kind of skill or whether product or service offering.” There was ExxonMobil’s Routledge planting his company’s position firmly in the ground, with “fixed targets” mildly cautioned against, since such a push has its downside.

Fixed targets have a relationship to percentages, and the higher those are, the more local content benefits come to Guyanese. The Country Head is good at having it both ways, saying first that fixed targets “can be motivational” but that they “also tend to lead to overinvestment.” It is healthy to learn that the lead manager for ExxonMobil in Guyana is concerned about Guyanese overinvestment. Apparently, he has added another responsibility to his local portfolio. Now he cautions against what likely could come from over expectation in citizens rearing to participate either for the first time, or participating some more, in their oil bonanza. What is Routledge really about, looking out for Guyanese and urging them to take it slow, to be patient, or looking out first for ExxonMobil, and not parting with a penny more that adds to Guyana’s local content take?

The company is pushing forward with new billion-dollars projects, contracting more and spending by the US billions, but there was Routledge warning Guyanese to manage themselves more carefully. His company is in a race with time, but he is telling Guyanese to go slow, be satisfied with how local content engagement has come from ExxonMobil to them. ExxonMobil is always looking ahead, and planning ahead, but has other ideas about Guyanese doing the same. In other words, it is better for the local content trickledown coming from the company to stay as it is.

Guyana’s chief policymaker, Jagdeo, is not taking that well. His reaction was sharp, “I saw the President of ExxonMobil Guyana here saying that we might not need to move the percentages up or change the law. Well, we believe it has to be changed. I disagree with him on that.” Jagdeo made his position clear, when he said that local content numbers can’t stay the same, and that “either through the regulations or if the core Act has to be changed, we’ll change it.” It is rare that Guyana’s oil czar speaks so authoritatively on most matters, and rarer still when the American oil colossus is part of the conversation, involved in some way. We wish that he would speak with the same conviction on other oil-related issues, which always seem to leave this country holding the wrong end of the stick.

We will see if Jagdeo is bluffing, merely putting on a show for Guyanese who are not familiar with his playbook. He had committed to a Petroleum Commission several years ago, and where is it? The oil audits that he gave his stamp of approval have been plagued with doubt and secrecy, and the follow-up actions that should have been completed are still heading nowhere. Currently, his position on ExxonMobil and local content is clear. Jagdeo must make ExxonMobil step-up, not play his usual games.

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Bharrat Jagdeo, changes, Editorial, Exxon, Local Content

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