US$214M and Guyana’s oil partner

Jun 12, 2026 Editorial, News

Editorial…

(Kaieteur News) – Guyanese keep getting revelations about the kind of oil partner Guyana has in ExxonMobil. Whenever it is anything that involves money, even some smaller amount, the company goes on a war footing. There are dollar signs in its eye, and its officials will fight with any weapon that they can find. Straight fighting is out, dirty is in, if that is what it has to be. The IHS Markit audit findings of US$214M is one indication of how this oil supergiant will fight to the death, while still calling itself a trusted partner to Guyana.

A trusted partner would sit across a table and make the best out of a bad situation. The IHS Markit audit showed how ExxonMobil cannot be trusted. There is the US$214M in expense claims for the period 1999 to 2017. Expenses that dropped to that figure after much wrangling between the company and Guyana’s auditors. Years later that US$214M is still unresolved, casts a blot and an odour over this so-called partnership. Is that a real partnership, or a forced relationship due to mutual convenience? Guyana has the oil, ExxonMobil landed in the middle of it, and since then has clawed and ripped Guyana as good as any predator. Yet, it carries on with this charade of being a partner. It has a partner in the PPPC Government, which is up to the same tricks that gouge this country. From no taxes and no ring-fencing and no renegotiating at the inception, it has been no road in sight to putting an end to the bickering over the US$214M in audit findings since 2024. Even agreeing on the appointment of a sole auditor to close out the dispute, in favour of one party or the other, has turned up more roadblocks, proven to be impassable. But ExxonMobil still sells itself as a partner to Guyana. Whoever falls for that six for a nine deserves to be made into a fool, and swindled for all that he is worth.

ExxonMobil is the party that wrongly charged those US$214M in expenses. While it is a matter of accounting of a special kind, it is also of owning up when caught red-handed with the goods, figuratively speaking. We at this publication are still trying to figure out who tried that sneaky move, which resulted in the IHS Market findings plunging from US$214M to US$3M under the cover of dark, and with a willing scapegoat found to take the blame. Was it someone with considerable influence in the PPPC Government? Or, did ExxonMobil’s shadow somehow end up being too close to that development, which was so favourable to the company? On a separate note, Guyana needs, could find considerable benefits from employing a firm of the caliber of IHS Markit. However, the record indicates that it has never been rewarded with another audit engagement by the PPP/C Government, since its exposure of ExxonMobil spending ways and standards. Why is that, and who is behind that decision, especially when there are doubts about the quality of the audits this country has been getting?

Partners should be committed to looking out for each other’s interests. In Guyana, ExxonMobil’s interests are all that matters. Whatever happens to Guyana happens, however it fares, that is its business to sort through. In a business with tens of billions of US dollars have been spent, why is there what is the equivalent of a death struggle over a mere US$214M? Why does that have to become a matter of life and death for ExxonMobil? We hope that some executive of the company does not make any public claim that it is not the money, it is the principle involved, and the reputation of ExxonMobil that is at stake. What principle when Guyanese are living with an oil contract that is so diseased that over half of this country is sick from need, from stress caused by not having enough to eat daily.

In a country that possessed leaders with some pride, this endless dispute over US$214M in audit findings would have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Enough of ExxonMobil schemes, enough of dealing with people who seem capable of killing for a penny.

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audit findings, Editorial, ExxonMobil, Guyana’s oil, IHS Markit

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