More profits, but from more production only

Jun 14, 2026 Editorial, News

Editorial…

(Kaieteur News) – ExxonMobil US$6B, Hess Corporation US$4B, and CNOOC US$2.5B represents the 2025 profits of the members of the oil consortium operating offshore Guyana. For the same 2025, the other half of this great oil partnership received US$2.5B. ExxonMobil’s posture is that the US$2.5B that Guyana received in 2025 is accurate and its fair half share, after cost recovery. Guyana’s Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo said, “As we mentioned before, there’s a difference between petroleum agreement, accounting and IFRS. So, the petroleum agreement is really designed to allocate profit oil on a cash basis between ExxonMobil Guyana Limited and its co-venturers, and the government.” Speaking on behalf of ExxonMobil Guyana Ltd, Vice President and Business Services Manager, John Colling, assured that after costs are recovered, Guyana’s cash inflows will increase. He also said there will be still more income due to new projects being put into production. According to Exxon Guyana Country Head, Alistair Routledge, there is another US$5B in costs to be recovered.

Whoever is trying to wrap a blindfold around the eyes of Guyanese is not doing such a good job. To cut through what Colling said and Routledge said, we point to two facts that clash with each other, but which are still to be employed to give Guyanese hope. ExxonMobil’ Colling was all assurance: when the 75% in cost recovery from the top is over, Guyana will receive more. And when new oil projects are merged into the company’s production line, there will be even more millions for Guyana. We at this paper would like to know if the executives at ExxonMobil think that Guyanese are so ignorant. How will costs ever be reduced to zero, and Guyana’s profit share rise due to the absence of the 75% recovery provision, when new U.S. multibillion dollar projects are continually being added on a staggered basis, and there is no ringfencing? When ExxonMobil is first in line to grab 75% of Guyana’s oil revenues, what is left for Guyana, other than the pittances that it has been collecting?

Country Head Routledge noted that there is still US$5B in outstanding costs. Where did that come from, when the first four oil projects have been fully repaid? How can that go lower when ExxonMobil has been slick enough to push expensive new oil projects into the PPP/C Government’s lap? Instead of going down, the cost bank keeps on going up. And the increase in daily production by hundreds of thousands of barrels from those new oil projects is what is being used to fool naïve Guyanese that they will get more. This country might get slightly more, but oil prices have to stay at current or higher levels, and more of Guyana’s precious depletable patrimony has to be pumped. To reduce to it most understanding level, for every extra dollar that Guyana receives as profit, it would be as a result of an extra barrel of oil pumped and sold. Plain and simple, it is Exxon selling more of Guyana’s oil and insulting Guyanese by saying that they are set to get more. Colling was so clever, so smooth, that he was careful to talk about 75% cost recovery, on the one hand, but hurried to include new projects in his formula for more profits for Guyana, in the next hand.

We do not blame ExxonMobil’s Business Services Manager. His primary job is to lookout for ExxonMobil. More projects going live translates to more millions for Guyana. We remind our readers that it was Guyana’s leading oil policymaker, who promised more oil money in 2027, and who was also sharp enough to wrap new production levels in his selling program. He was not alone, as another PPP/C Government minister also jumped on the higher daily production bandwagon. It is obvious that the PPP/C Government is fearful of even appearing to be thinking about ringfencing. So, it sells more projects, more production, which is taking the easy way by stuffing Guyanese with fillers. IFRS accounting is one to justify the huge difference between the consortium profits and Guyana’s. A helpful and encouraging one is more millions from new projects. To get more, Guyana has to produce more. In effect, paying itself from its own pocket.

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CNOOC, Editorial, ExxonMobil, Hess Corporation

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