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What are those billions for?
Editorial…
(Kaieteur News) – It is a fact that denying and dodging have a limited existence. In the contexts of family, workplace, friendship, business, or politics, that limited shelf life for denying and dodging still applies. We apply this to the business of Guyana’s oil and the politics surrounding it. The best place and person to begin with is Guyana’s chief policymaker for its oil and gas sector, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.
In 2024, Jagdeo was asked about ownership of oil assets in the local environment. This was his response: “It’s a simple thing. You’re not part owner of any company. You don’t own these assets. So, ExxonMobil puts in the investment. They create a company; the company has these assets. We are entitled to receive in the future, 50%, once everything is paid off…you are entitled to collect 50% of future profits and they get 50% and then 2% royalty on the gross…that’s your entitlement to collect.”
He expanded when questioned further: “It’s a simple thing. Why do we have to keep explaining this all of the time? We don’t own 50% of the company. We have an entitlement as a state to 50% of the revenue. That is why we don’t have to supply any capital to invest, we don’t supply any capital.”
We now introduce John Collings, ExxonMobil’s Guyana Vice President and Business Services Manager: “Through the end of 2025, there was over US$55B in the cost bank of which US$51B had been recovered. As I mentioned in my prior talking points, US$4.5B was yet to be recovered by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited and its co-venturers.” We make a point. Higher average oil prices in 2025 helped to accelerate the repayment of ExxonMobil’s US$55B investment.
So, what did the US$55B invested in Guyana buy, cover? Guyana has paid back US$51B of that US$55B. What did those billions pay for, what does Guyana own? We return to Jagdeo, this country’s chief policymaker in its crucial oil and gas sector and his own words from 2024: You’re not part owner of any company. You don’t own these assets.” Did Jagdeo know what he was talking about? Should he have been in that demanding role? Was and is he Guyana’s chief policymaker for oil and gas, or the chief watcher and protector for ExxonMobil?
US$51B repaid from the cost bank paid for something. More than bolts and nuts, more than screws, drill bits, hoses, and clamps. We identify multibillion dollar Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels. We identify the US$160M office building at Ogle, East Coast Demerara that ExxonMobil built for itself using Guyana’s oil money. Money that formed part of the cost bank that Guyana’s oil was repaying, and which was down to US$4.5B at the end of 2025. Only Guyana can own the assets identified here, because Guyana’s money paid for them. Who could question that, deny that, or dodge from that reality?
Therefore, when the PPP/C Government and its chief oil and gas policymaker, Jagdeo, try to deny ownership of those assets, they are not representing Guyana’s interests. They are working for the interests of ExxonMobil. It is incredible that a political leader with Jagdeo’s talent and experience could have said in 2024 that “you don’t own these assets.” So, what does Guyana own except the debt in the cost bank? Why even have a cost bank if what it is paying for is nothing but smoke?
Finally, and also from 2024, there is this statement from Jagdeo. “Now if you have a dissolution of the company and they sell off the assets, I guess we are entitled to 50% of the assets too in the situation where you dissolve the company…” This is the best that this former president, this architect and master brain behind the PPP/C Government’s management of Guyana’s oil patrimony can offer. “I guess we are entitled to 50% of the assets too…” The best he can do is “guess.” A sector worth trillions of Guyana dollars, and Guyana’s oil czar is reduced to “I guess”. He should be leading the charge to protect Guyana’s assets, watching for every ExxonMobil’s move. He denied and dodged ownership, then guess. A pathetic government, a chief oil policymaker to be pitied.
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