Ram accuses PPP, APNU of betraying Guyana

Jul 07, 2026 News

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…says parties doled out every concession Exxon demanded

(Kaieteur News) – Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram has launched one of his strongest attacks yet on the management of Guyana’s petroleum sector, accusing successive PPP/C and APNU+AFC administrations of presiding over a “persistent pattern of weak oversight, lax enforcement, poor transparency” that has allowed oil companies to secure virtually every concession they sought.

In his latest Road to First Oil – Every Man, Woman and Child Must Become Oil Minded column, Ram argued that Guyana’s problems extend far beyond the controversial 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), contending that failures in governance, regulation and contract administration stretch back to the original 1999 agreement and continue under the current administration.

“The financial, audit and regulatory weaknesses highlighted in this mini-series make for disturbing reading and raise serious concerns,” Ram wrote. “These failures pale in comparison with the absence of adequate contract administration by successive administrations.”

The outspoken accountant said governments have consistently failed in their duty as “trustees of the nation’s resources,” accusing them of neglecting their responsibility to protect the country’s oil wealth for present and future generations.

Kaieteur News has repeatedly highlighted concerns over the 2016 ExxonMobil contract, particularly its 2% royalty, the absence of ring-fencing provisions, unlimited cost recovery, tax concessions and other provisions critics say heavily favour the oil companies. Successive governments have also faced criticism over delays in completing cost recovery audits and refusing to renegotiate the agreement despite earlier promises.

Ram argued that while the APNU+AFC administration has attracted much of the criticism for signing the 2016 agreement, “the record shows a chain of failures stretching from the 1999 Agreement signed under President Janet Jagan, through its 2016 revision, and into its ongoing administration.”

“These are not isolated errors,” Ram stated. “They reflect a persistent pattern of weak oversight, lax enforcement, poor transparency, and an undue deference to foreign oil companies at the expense of the national interest.”

He singled out what he described as a series of decisions that ultimately favoured ExxonMobil, pointing to what he called excessive acreage granted under the Janet Jagan administration, the acceptance of force majeure during the Bharrat Jagdeo administration, the licence renewal under the David Granger government and continued concessions under the current PPP/C administration.

“Exxon has been granted every concession it has sought, undermining the safeguards built into the petroleum legislation, all at the expense of the country,” Ram declared.

The chartered accountant also revisited the controversial 2016 renegotiation of the petroleum agreement, arguing that legal issues surrounding the original licence were effectively erased through a Bridging Deed.

According to Ram, “Janet Jagan’s 1999 Agreement and David Granger’s 2016 Agreement became conjoined twins, politically and legally inseparable,” leaving both major political parties tied to what he described as a petroleum regime that disproportionately benefits the operators.

Ram further accused the PPP/C of abandoning key campaign promises after returning to office in 2020.

“After its return to power in 2020, the PPP/C reneged on its repeated commitment to renegotiate the 2016 Agreement and to set up an independent Petroleum Commission,” he wrote.

The Petroleum Commission legislation was originally intended to establish an independent regulator for the sector. However, despite repeated commitments by successive administrations, the body has never been established, leaving the Ministry of Natural Resources to perform both policy-making and regulatory functions.

Ram was equally critical of the ministry’s handling of the sector, saying, “The entire team at the Ministry of Natural Resources appears to lack the commitment, the capacity or the expertise required to oversee the Petroleum Agreement effectively.”

He argued that this has resulted in persistent deficiencies in accounting, reporting, auditing and operational compliance.

Among his strongest criticisms was government’s handling of petroleum audits.

Listing 18 major failures, Ram said authorities have failed to scrutinise billions of US dollars in pre-contract costs, neglected to enforce ring-fencing protections, refused to publish petroleum reports required under the agreement and failed to complete ministerial audits.

“Not a single ministerial audit has been completed in what has become a circus of reckless incompetence,” Ram wrote. “It is as though the Administration is insensitive to the financial benefits of proper audits.”

He also accused the government of acting alongside oil companies rather than protecting the public interest, pointing to its interventions in court matters involving the petroleum sector.

According to Ram, there has been “a consistent pattern of intervening in litigation on the side of the oil companies rather than maintaining the neutrality expected of a government acting in the public interest.”

He also renewed concerns about the gas-to-shore project, alleging that government had become “a co-conspirator in non-disclosure” after China’s CNOOC disclosed in its financial statements that it was funding some project expenses, a disclosure he said later disappeared from subsequent reports.

Ram concluded that the greatest danger facing Guyana’s oil future is no longer the controversial petroleum agreement itself but government’s unwillingness to confront its weaknesses.

“To Guyanese, the greatest disappointment has been the Ali Administration’s abandonment of its promise to put Guyana first,” Ram wrote. “Having inherited an Agreement it rightly condemned, it has chosen not only to defend it, but in important respects to sweeten rather than reform it, all favourable of the oil companies.”

He ended with a stark warning: “The Granger Administration surrendered too much; the Ali Administration is on course to surrender what remains.”

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• Christopher Ram, Exxon, Guyana Oil, oil record

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