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Guyana paralyzed as Exxon dictates country’s fate – Ram
…says country will remain captive unless politicians act
(Kaieteur News) – As American oil giant, ExxonMobil continues to grow its profits, Guyana is stuck with an arrangement that barely pipes less than a quarter of the revenue generated offshore to the country.
Instead of fighting and demanding change to this onerous situation, the country is laid back, allowing its natural resources to profit a private company rather than improve the general conditions of the country.
Summarizing this was Chartered Accountant, Lawyer and advocate for good governance, Christopher Ram. While appearing on Thursday’s radio programme with the Oil and Gas Governance Network (OGGN), Ram discussed the current profit share agreement with ExxonMobil and partners in the Stabroek Block with former Editor-in-Chief of the now liquidated Stabroek News, Anand Persaud.
Chartered Accountant and Attorney, Christopher Ram
During the programme aired on Kaieteur Radio 99.1/ 99.5 FM, Ram called out the Opposition in particular for failing to speak out against the issues unfolding in the petroleum sector.
He said, “I think it’s incumbent on every single Guyanese, not only civil society. Where are the Opposition parties? Where are the spokes people? I don’t particularly want to call names but you’ve got a leader of the Opposition, you have a leader of the (People’s National Congress) PNC, you have a shadow leader of the PNC, what’s going on? Who speaks on these matters?”
With silence echoing across the political realm, Ram told listeners Guyana seems to be in a state of paralysis since elections were last held.
According to the attorney, “Parliament is not meeting. The country, unfortunately since elections seems to be paralyzed and that is very dangerous. Never has any single company determined the fate of Guyana as Exxon determines our current fate with this 2016 petroleum agreement.”
Meanwhile, reflecting on the impact of his weekly column published by Stabroek News, Ram said he does not believe the articles were able to achieve much beyond educating citizens. Despite the wealth of information provided in the press, Ram noted that governance continues to be dominated by the multinational corporation.
In fact, he was unsure whether politicians were actually reading the newspapers and if they were interested in specific content, reminding that issues such as ring-fencing continues to be highlighted and other issues such as force majeure are still being abused.
To this end, he concluded, “There is no real effective management. We know they said when they gave up renegotiation, they would have better contract administration, well, we don’t have it.”
Meanwhile, the lawyer explained that while civil society plays an important role, citizens are fearful of victimization and choose to stay silent.
“People are afraid because they think well, we mustn’t say anything that is critical or might be unwelcomed by the government of Guyana…civil society, there is always more to be done but it alone cannot do it and unless the political leaders get out there and start doing something we will be captive to Exxon, we will be captive to the whole American framework and that’s a tragedy,” Ram argued.
In accordance with the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), Guyana receives 12.5% of profits and 2% royalty. As such, ExxonMobil takes a whopping 87.5% of revenues generated offshore.
Guyanese have been demanding changes to the agreement but despite promising to renegotiate, government is now insisting that the contract cannot be changed. Although the PSA makes provision for renegotiation, government now believes that engaging the contractor could hamper further investments in the Block.
On January 1, 2025 this newspaper reported that President Ali made it clear he has no interest in writing the company to seek changes to the deal.
The Head of State explained that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has always been consistent in its position that the deal was “bad”. He however noted, “What we committed to was to respect the sanctity of contracts and that the international law, that has implications for us as a country. Other investors are looking on but what we said was that future PSAs would not have these fatal flaws and future PSAs would not have the type of lopsided arrangements that Exxon had, and we have made those adjustments to future PSAs.”
President Ali said too that the market conditions must also be taken into consideration to ensure policies here do not drive away investment, but strikes a balance to still ensure the greatest benefit comes to Guyanese. In fact, the Head-of-State highlighted that Guyana has already seen benefits not only from the oil and gas sector, but from the expanded growth in the economy.
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As confirmed by AI, Patriot Christoper Ram got it right . In developing nations such as Guyana, oil companies often exert significant influence through state-majority partnerships and economic dependence. In Angola, Western oil giants have historically played a dominant role in extraction, while in Nigeria, multinational corporations have long controlled the distribution and extraction processes. Libya also relies heavily on international partnerships to maintain its infrastructure.