Prosperous ExxonMobil sells poverty improvement

Feb 22, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – A man from outer space came to Guyana and spoke all the right words at the fifth gathering of the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo. Dan Ammann is the latest from ExxonMobil’s gallery of supersalesmen to market the company and all that it is doing for Guyana. Ammann comes with the impressive title of President of ExxonMobil Upstream Company and Vice President of the Corporation. With such an outstanding introductory card, Ammann has to be an old hand at his company’s public relations game. He did not disappoint, and by the time he was finished speaking, the well-credentialed Dan Ammann showed how much he has been well-oiled by the ExxonMobil sales machine.

“First, energy development is transforming this country. You can see it everywhere. New construction, hospitals, clinics, schools, roads, bridges, shops and stores, beautification projects, community centers and recreational facilities.” That was a part of his opening salvo. Like many others, Ammann sees what he wants to see, and nothing else. He sees the top of the new Guyana skyline, but he is smart enough to turn his face, so he can pretend not to see the huge swaths of poverty around and below those massive towers and structures. In a country where it is reported that over half the population could be starving from not having enough to eat daily, there was the man from ExxonMobil who has it all, highlighting bricks and mortars, only to proceed to dig a hole for himself.

More importantly, “there’s what the energy from Guyana can do to improve the lives of people all around the world…it helps to lift people out of poverty and raise the standard of living of people everywhere. Guyana’s energy develops Guyana but it helps the entire (globe) and that’s what this conference is about,” he shared. Who is this man that talks a lot, has such an expansive vision, but clearly, is struggling to see beyond his nose? Guyana’s oil is a contributor to helping lift “the standard of living of people everywhere (the entire globe)”. It is doubtful, but it seems that Ammann has not heard that charity begins at home. People everywhere reap the benefits of Guyana’s oil, but at least half of the people right here, are gasping for breath, grasp futilely for some substance. They come up with straws, in their efforts to make a living in one of the richest countries in the world. A passable living only, that same standard of living of which Ammann spoke so eloquently, but which is a mirage for Guyanese. Mr. Alistair Routledge, ExxonMobil’s headman in Guyana, has heard many earfuls from this paper on this very issue, so he is in a good position to bring ExxonMobil’s latest propagandist, Dan Ammann, up to speed.

The structures are physically present, so he has that right; but they mask the grim conditions of citizens who are shoved out of Guyana’s prosperous picture. Hard reality confirms that there are so many large batches of Guyanese who live with dirt poverty as a constant companion, who see those signs of glittering progress as the price they pay for their miserable state. When a government is forced to hide poverty data, and computes food inflation percentages by some mysterious algorithm unknown to others, it signals that all is not well. All that glitters is not gold, and with ExxonMobil on the threshold of producing a million barrels of oil a day, half of Guyana can testify to the accuracy of that adage. Where are all these riches spoken so smartly about, and how is it that there is hardly any of it reaching down to Guyanese at their wits end to make ends meet?

Dan Ammann, the latest of ExxonMobil’s men specialty skilled at painting bright pictures, could be excused. He jets into Guyana, then jets out just as quickly. He sees the surface gloss, was good at selling how great Guyana is for the world. The last thing that Guyanese need is another slick energy salesman bigging up ExxonMobil and Guyana’s oil, while citizens lose their way, and lose hope, daily. Guyana’s oil lifts the world’s impoverished, with Ammann’s keynote address skirting around the impoverished right here.

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Dan Ammann, Editorial, ExxonMobil, poverty

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