Govt. must share country’s resources with ‘rightful owners’ – Dr Adams

Mar 15, 2026 News

---

…says Exxon’s quarterly reports and FDPs can solve mystery of oil reserves

(Kaieteur News) – The Government of Guyana (GoG) was caught with its pants down when Kaieteur News learnt that its energy partner, ExxonMobil reported growth in the country’s oil reserves without making any such disclosure to the nation, according to former head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams.

The Petroleum and Reservoir Engineer, issued a scathing response to the Ministry of Natural Resources, which according to him spouted “extraneous gibberish” in a statement dated February 24, 2026 where it sought to address an article published by Kaieteur News under the headline “ExxonMobil reports growth in oil reserves to shareholders…but nothing told to Guyanese by Govt. and company”.

Dr. Adams mocked that upon reading the government’s response to the article, he did not know whether to laugh or cry.

“Being caught with its pants down, the Govt. as usual, responded with its extraneous gibberish about terms they obviously didn’t even understand, to bamboozle and insult the Guyanese people,” he said as he went on to explain the issue.  

Dr. Adams made it pellucid that the country’s reserves represent the bank account of every Guyanese, making the subject a national issue. With controversy surrounding the country’s true oil reserves, the former EPA boss argued that GoG as the custodian of Guyana’s resources is mandated to share the “account information” with its rightful owners.

As such, he explained, “To unravel this government-created oil reserves mystery, the government must make public, the Exxon Quarterly Reports, the 51 Notice of Discoveries, and the seven Field Development Plans, if they care to resurrect any semblance of credibility and seriousness relative to their acclaim of transparency and Minister (of Natural Resources Vickram) Bharrat’s words to not “withhold any information”.

He was keen to note that Exxon in its 2025 Annual Report stated in simple English that

“Additions to proved reserves include 2.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent (bboe) from primarily the U.S. and Guyana.”

In responding to the article, government according to Adams responded with “foolishness” that “it is not a country-by-country quantifying incremental proved reserves attributable to Guyana. Presenting that single consolidated figure as a definitive Guyana reserves increase is inaccurate”.

He reasoned, “How could anyone, assumed to possess basic comprehension skills, not grasp plain vanilla language specifying that Guyana is one of only two countries “quantifying” the 2.1 bboe, thus begging KN’s valid question as to how much of that 2.1 did Guyana contribute.”

Dr. Adams drew readers’ attention to 10 plain facts; the first that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo admitted that “Exxon may not be telling the truth about Guyana’s oil reserves”. According to research done by the Petroleum Engineer, Guyana’s 11B barrel oil reserves was announced since April 2022, following the 30^th discovery by Exxon yet with 21 additional discoveries, there has been no increase to the reserves.

Beyond that, he reminded that Hess, a 30% shareholder in the Stabroek Block disclosed that its estimate exceeds the 11 bboe claimed by Exxon, while CNOOC the 25% shareholder reported an additional 746M barrels in one discovery in 2023.

Additionally, U.S. renowned S&P Global estimated Guyana’s reserves at 18.7B while economist, former Guyana Finance Minister, and Deputy Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, Asgar Ally declared the reserves to be 15B barrels.

Dr. Adams recalled that prior to the 11B barrel announcement in April 2022, Exxon previously publicised each discovery, including non-commercial ones, in keeping with industry practices.

To this end, he said, “Information blackout started in October 2022 after four additional wells followed the April 2022 announcement, but no update was given, though the four wells bore similar characteristics to the first 30 in pay zone, size and oil quality described as having “high-quality oil”.

Shifting his attention to the subject minister’s statement that “there is no reason for Exxon to withhold any information as to our discovered resources,” Dr. Adams said minister Bharrat may be unaware of Jagdeo’s conclusion that Exxon may not be telling the truth about Guyana’s reserves.

Furthermore, he reasoned, “Does the Minister not know of Exxon’s ignoble reputation around the world manifested by many litigations and fines including for reporting false data? Does he not know of the billions of decommissioning costs Exxon withholds for cleanup of the ocean floor at end of operation? And does he not know that like the U.S.-billions Guyana pays for Exxon’s taxes, these decommissioning withholdings go into Exxon’s bank account decades before use to do whatever they want with it, including investments without a penny to Guyana?”

With glaring contradictions in the public domain reported by government and the Stabroek shareholders on the country’s reserves, the Petroleum and Reservoir Engineer is calling on the GoG to release the quarterly reports submitted by the contractor, the Notice of Discoveries (NODs) filed by Exxon and the company’s seven FDPs, especially since Jagdeo is on record stating that all of the FDPs were on government’s website.

He explained, “The NODs contain the analyses and results of each of the 51 discoveries, while the FDPs comprise the planning details of each of projects against which the Quarterly Reports provide the performance updates,” adding that he hopes the administration will not continue to insult Guyanese with its excuse that the documents are too complicated for citizens to comprehend. Dr. Adams also made it clear that this information is not proprietary.

---

• Dr. Vincent Adams, EPA, ExxonMobil, oil reserves, rightful owners

---