Longtail – the sting in the scorpion’s tail

Mar 27, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – Exxon is moving ahead with oil project number eight -Longtail.  No government approval, but Exxon is going great guns with that eighth project.  Two questions are presented again to Guyanese: who is making decisions here?  Decision involving billions in US dollars.  So as not to insult any national leader, all I will say is that Exxon doesn’t care about any Guyana Government.  The company knows where its strengths are, and where Guyana’s Achilles’ heel is.

Exxon’s strength is in more than in its binding, crippling 2016 oil contract that hangs Guyana helplessly.  The company’s strongest features are in Washington.  Guyana blinks at Exxon, and Washington is ready to sink this country.  The PPP Govt. is not touching Exxon in any way that causes it discomfort, introduces alarm, makes it think twice.  Former President Granger made those mistakes, and Pres. Ali and Vice President Jagdeo have learned that lesson well.  Exxon wants a new oil project, one likely in the low double-digit billion-dollar range, rushes ahead with spending, with the PPP Govt. obtuse or comatose.  It is playing safe, enjoying a long, healthy political life.  Thanks to David Granger and the PNC, a priceless tutorial was given to General Secretary Jagdeo’s PPP.

Hence, Exxon gallops ahead with one project, then another.  Standdown; let it be.  The greenlight from the government is guaranteed, regardless of environmental impacts, potential safety concerns, and Exxon’s history of spending (and accounting for) money.  The oil billions of the Guyanese people.  Who cares?  Exxon bobs and weaves with how much found in recent discoveries, and is tricky with the true level of Guyana’s oil reserves.  What’s the big deal?  The PPP Govt. creates a ruckus, Exxon gets nervous, and watch how quickly Washington gets serious.  Donald Trump or the belated, beloved Jimmy Carter, and it doesn’t matter, simply the same old story.  American interests are American interests.  Whoever tampers with that just made himself into a firing range target.

There is nobody who knows that as well as Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.  His professors at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow didn’t indoctrinate him.  He has his own tonic.  Dare even to glance at Exxon sideways and it is into the political wilderness where the US has packed its friends who got ideas about being the boss, calling the shots.  Out of deference to a former president, I will not insult him by repeating his name a third time.  He showed his hand, set his face into steel, and out came Excellency Sarah Ann Lynch and Secretary Mike Pompeo in full battle armor.  Imagine that! and all for electoral democracy in Guyana.  Burnham went against that for almost three decades, and who were his best friends, if not those in DC.  Guyanese had better come to their senses, understand how they are yoked, and where they are trapped.  I term it the irrefutable logic of the law of oil.  Guyana has it, Exxon takes it.

Thus, Exxon’s Project Eight, Longtail is hitting the airwaves.  How much will it cost, and with what hit on Guyana’s profits?  What do the studies, if any credible ones were done, raise about gaps and the concerns that those bring to the forefront?  All that Guyanese know is what I call that bait-and-switch tactic: 250,000 more fresh barrels of oil.  Makes citizens swoon.  Then, comes Longtail’s brutal lash.  Oh, the project is priced at between US$10-15 billion, give or take a million or two.  Guyana wants more daily production volume doesn’t it?  Here’s the solution.  Put the eighth oil project, Captain Longtail, on the table.  Money doesn’t matter; just keep on spending and billing Guyana.  How it is accounted for is a frivolous matter.  Risks, who cares about risks?

Exxon knows that it has the Guyana Government where it wants it.  In a bag.  And, the PPP Govt. knows that if it starts to get restless and agitate about being disrespected, or taken for granted, that Washington will be riled up, the special relationship strained to the breaking point.  One move, however slight, that prompts suspicion in Excellencies Nicole D. Theriot and Marco Rubio, and it is up the river for Bharrat Jagdeo and company.  Longtail takes over, and Alistair Routledge rubs his hands gleefully, heads to Texas National Bank to celebrate.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• Approval, Exxon, GHK Lall, Longtail, PPP

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