Unravelling the Govt-created mystery of Guyana’s Oil Reserves

Mar 15, 2026 Letters

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Dear Editor,

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry upon reading the Government’s recent response to a Kaieteur News (KN) question concerning Guyana’s oil reserves – a subject the Govt has turned into a mystery, if not their privileged information. In other words, screw the people of Guyana who owns the oil!

Government (Govt) elitists still can’t get it that this God given oil endowment belongs to the people and not to them. Those reserves stand for the bank account of all Guyanese, with Govt as custodian mandated to share account information with the rightful owners. To unravel this Govt created oil reserves mystery, the Govt must make public, the Exxon Quarterly Reports, the 51 Notice of Discoveries, and the 7 Field Development Plans, if they care to resurrect any semblance of credibility and seriousness relative to their acclaim of transparency and Minister Bharrat’s words to not “withhold any information”.

KN’s question was triggered by Exxon’s 2025 Annual Report stating in simple English that the 2025 “additions to prove reserves include 2.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent (bboe) from primarily the US and Guyana.” Considering the 6-year Govt’s blackout of information, this bombshell prompted KN to logically ask how much of those increased reserves came from Guyana, since Guyana was singled out as one of only two “primary” contributors to the increase.

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. Most embarrassing was the 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”. 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.

Whether driven by incompetence, imperiousness, or disrespect for people, this behaviour characterizes the modus operandi of the PPPC (People’s Progressive Party Civic) head honchos who habitually pretzel themselves to immorally defend the indefensible atrocities committed against the Guyanese people. Their typical vacillating on the subject of reserves is dizzying as they pitifully and subserviently parrots Exxon’s disinformation, or, as per Judge Kissoon, are “derelict, pliant and submissive”, even when it means ditching Guyana.

The facts surrounding Guyana’s oil reserves are as follows:

1. In October 2024, upon running out of excuses to defend Exxon, Honourable VP Bharrat Jagdeo publicly admitted that “Exxon may not be telling the truth about Guyana’s oil reserves”;
2. The 11 bboe reserves was announced in April 2022, following the 30^th discovery;
3. To date, 21 additional discoveries were made with no reported increase above the 11 bboe of 4 years ago, implying that all 21wells came up as dry holes;
4. Hess (Exxon’s partner) disclosed that estimate exceeds the 11 bboe claimed by Exxon;
5. CNOOC (Exxon’s partner) reported an additional 746M barrels in one discovery in 2023, which should have increased the reported reserves to 11.75 bboe;
6. In 2024, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) announced that reserves had grown to 11.6 bboe, but hotfooted back in line with Exxon’s 11 bboe, when Exxon disputed MNR’s announcement, though both MNR and Exxon used the same data;
7. Up until the 11 bboe announcement in April 2022, Exxon immediately publicised each discovery including non-commercial ones, in keeping with industry practices;
8. Information blackout started in October 2022 after 4 additional wells followed the April 22 announcement, but no update was given, though the 4 wells bore similar characteristics to the 1^st 30 in pay zone size and oil quality described as having “high-quality oil”;
9. US internationally renowned S&P Global Energy puts reserves at 18.7 bboe;
10. Asgar Ally, economist, former Guyana Finance Minister, and Deputy Governor of the Bank of Jamaica declared the reserves to be 15 bboe.

The Govt takes Guyanese for fools, for even after their oil boss Jagdeo tells the nation that “Exxon may not be telling the truth”, we should still swallow that (i) all of the estimates from internationally accredited experts are wrong; (ii) it is mere coincidence that of 51 discoveries, the 1st 30 showed commercial oil, while the next 21were dry holes, though all were described to have similar oil pay zone size with “high-quality oil”; (iii) Exxon continues to waste U.S. $ billions, drilling dry holes costing over $100 million each; and (iv) the Govt is not obediently parroting Exxon’s disinformation of self-interest.

Motive – It is sad listening to Govt officials such as Minister Vickram Bharrat subserviently uttering that “there is no reason for Exxon to withhold any information as to our discovered resources.” Is it simply incompetence, naivety, or something else that make him such a rabid protector of Exxon? The herein common sence evidence aside, did the Minister sneer at his boss Jagdeo’s conclusion that “Exxon may not be telling the truth”? 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?

Does the Honourable Minister not know that withholdings are calculated from the reserves and the production rates, decreasing by the same percentage as the increase in reserves, and increasing by the same percentage as the increase in production rates. So, does the Minister now understand enough, or ready to admit why Exxon lowballs the reserves and illegally and dangerously pumps above the safe operating limits in cahoots with him – all to inflate the early U.S. $ decommissioning withholdings?

The stark reality is that Exxon has no obligation whatsoever to Guyana, regardless of the fancy rhetoric confounded by their deeds, but they do a masterful job satisfying their fiduciary duty to their shareholders, pumping plenty oil to make plenty money as quickly as possible. On the other hand, the Govt is not coming close to meeting its only charge of protecting Guyana’s best interest, but rather, barefacedly insults our intelligence proclaiming that they “remain committed to responsible petroleum management, transparent public communication, and evidence-based economic stewardship”. If this is not another attempt at foolery, don’t know what is!

The keystone cop head spinning caricature of this Govt is embarrassing. When Exxon attempts to validate the 11 bboe reserves saying that their submitted data were verified by the Govt’s, Jagdeo quickly took umbrage, retorting that it is “totally false” that the Govt was conducting its own assessments. Jagdeo once hilariously explained that while the recent discoveries made by Exxon are substantial, they do not represent a significant increase. Following Hess’s Report that 8 wells encountering oil was drilled in 2024, in his 2025 budget, Honourable Minister Ashni Singh contradicted that only 5 wells were drilled.

 Whenever asked about reserves, Exxon’s patented answer is that the Govt has the Quarterly Reports with the information. Jagdeo confirmed that “we get these reports every 3 months and the reports state what the reserves are”. In the meantime, Minister Bharrat boldly promised to “not withhold any information”.

Therefore, if the Govt wishes to regain any hint of credibility and seriousness akin to their acclaim of transparency, they must keep Bharrat’s promise to “not withhold any information” by releasing the Quarterly Reports along with the 51 Notice of Discoveries (NODs) and 7 Field Development Plans (FDPs), especially since Jagdeo is on record stating that all of the FDPs were on the Govt’s website. 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.

We hope that the Govt won’t repeat its insulting excuse that these documents are too complicated for Guyanese comprehension, and as a reminder, none of this information is proprietary!

Sincerely,

Dr. Vincent Adams

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• Dr. Vincent Adams, Guyana’s oil reserves, Letters, oil

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