Let’s push for ring-fencing

May 22, 2026 Editorial, News

Editorial

(Kaieteur News) – We do not have the luxury of self-congratulation having led the way for ringfencing of Guyana’s oil projects. We do not criticise anyone who took a while, but now come out openly for ringfencing of new oil projects pushed on Guyana by ExxonMobil.

We would prefer to celebrate when citizens from across this country, of all political persuasions, put aside what divides Guyanese and stand together for ringfencing. Ringfencing is way overdue. In a spirit of honest partnership, ExxonMobil should not wait on Guyana Government pressures. It should agree that ringfencing is fair for all parties to the 2016 oil contract, and that its time has arrived. To continue to resist calls for ringfencing, what would profit both its shareholders and this country’s citizens, would leave ExxonMobil being held as the least of partners. Seen as the worst of unwanted presences in Guyana, a bloodsucking leech.

Ringfencing should have been in the ExxonMobil-Guyana oil contract that was largely the handiwork of the company. In 2016, when Bharrat Jagdeo was Opposition Leader, his words told where he stood. “They (Coalition) came into office-three billion barrels of proven reserves, and they gave up zero royalties, no taxes, no ringfencing.” When he could have used the weight of the office that he held in 2016 to rail against “no ringfencing”, then after six years back in power, “no ringfencing” should have been long reversed.

Vice President Jagdeo knows as much as anyone else that it is the right thing to do. So why is his government not doing so, ringfencing new oil projects, and banish his lament? Why is he, President Ali and the entire Cabinet all now wrapping themselves in ‘sanctity of contract?’ He and the president made powerful commitments about what they would do with contracts (renegotiate them), once back in power. What is tying their hands, and why go along with a situation that is so against this country’s interests, so much to the loss of every citizen? One where ExxonMobil is the beneficiary of record profits from Guyana’s oil, while somewhere in the vicinity of half of the local population feel that they are worse-off since oil started being produced. The PPPC Government powers forward and seals ringfencing of new projects, and this country will benefit from that one move, its citizens finally enjoying the life that comes from being a significant oil producer.

APNU Leader, Aubrey Norton, has finally come around in favour of ringfencing. We will not waste any time by reminding of how much precious time was lost in deciding on what is so obvious, what stands to help Guyana reap its just rewards, and to take its place among respected oil nations. After consulting with professionals, and satisfying himself, Norton’s position is clear: “we should proceed to ringfence…to ensure that Guyana benefits…” To lock in his group’s position, he insisted that “we know that they must get profits, but not to milk us and our people are left poorer.”

Ringfencing will not make Guyana a losing investment for ExxonMobil, or send it into bankruptcy. The breakeven price of production is too low, the oil of premium quality. Alongside those, other favourable terms engineered for itself in the 2016 contract by the US oil veterans virtually guarantee many decades of high profitability for its stakeholders. The task before Guyana’s political elites in the PPPC Government and the entire Opposition (APNU, AFC, WIN, and FGM) is to follow through on their postures that were or are for ringfencing of new oil projects. There must be actions that influence ExxonMobil that ringfencing has gathered sufficient momentum, Guyana should not be held hostage any longer.

Ringfencing of Guyana’s oil projects has been recommended in different ways by such prestige organisations as the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations Development Program, and the World Bank. It should no longer be if to ringfence, but that it must come onboard now. The oil projects that have been approved are gone. The new projects that ExxonMobil is laying before the Guyana Government for approval, those are the ones that should be ringfenced. Not another oil project should be exempted from ringfencing. Both Guyana and ExxonMobil will profit fairly, operate as honest partners.

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Editorial, ExxonMobil, oil projects, ring-fencing

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