‘Time to change Exxon deal is now’ – Chris Ram

Aug 18, 2026 News

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…calls for 10% royalty, taxes, and cleanup cost to be borne by oil companies  

(Kaieteur News) – The recovery of all investments made in the Stabroek Block by ExxonMobil – the Operator of the Stabroek Block – has removed the last semblance of risks for the operator, paving the way for the Government of Guyana (GOG) to now seek a renegotiation of the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA).

This is according to Chartered Accountant and outspoken Attorney, Christopher Ram. In a recent commentary, Ram weighed into the US$55B costs that have been recovered by the company as announced by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman, Darren Woods on July 31, 2026.

The recovery of the company’s investments means that additional returns are like icing on the cake and make it possible for Guyana to get a bigger piece of the pie. Since production commenced in late 2019, Exxon has claimed the full 75% of the oil revenue as expenses to recover its investments. The remaining 25% was then split with Guyana as profits, meaning the country received 12.5%.

As such, Ram said, “Now that this moment has arrived, and the project has become risk-free, it is entirely appropriate that the government calls Exxon to the table and say, look we must renegotiate this contract now.”

The attorney reminded that the Ali-administration promised contract renegotiation during the 2020 Elections campaign but later back-peddled after taking office. He argued, “Then they promised better contract administration, and they have been demonstrably incompetent in that as well. Finally, it was sanity of contract (although ) the contract allows for renegotiation. Let us see what their most recent excuse is.”

Article 32.1 states that Government shall not “require renegotiation of” the agreement without the Contractor’s prior written consent. Article 32.2 bars any new tax, royalty, duty, fee, charge or VAT for the life of the contract. Ram would narrow the whole of Article 32 to what stabilisation clauses are supposed to do – protect an investor from being singled out – leaving laws of general application to apply to Exxon as they apply to every other business in Guyana.

The sweetheart deal Exxon signed in 2016 states in Article 15.1 that the Contractors as well as their affiliates shall not be subjected to tax, value-added tax, excise tax, duty, fee, charge, or impost in respect of income derived from petroleum operations, property held or transactions except as specified under the agreement.

Further, Article 15.4 states that the sum equivalent to the taxes owed by the company will be paid by the Minister responsible for Petroleum to the Commissioner General of the GRA. It should be noted that the contract also allows for the issuing of a receipt to ExxonMobil, indicating that it has met the local tax requirements to avoid the burden of double taxation. Ram noted that Darren Woods did not mention anything about taxation or the benefits of billions.

Ram’s first demand is that the Contractor file, be assessed, and pay its own taxes like every other company operating in Guyana, and receive a receipt for money it has actually paid. If the companies insist that a tax concession was part of the bargain, he says, then let it be a concession with an end date: a defined ten-year waiver running from first oil in December 2019 and expiring in December 2029. Ten years is a holiday. Thirty is a transfer.

Second, Ram wants an increase in the rate of royalty from 2% to at least 6% moving up to 10% within five years.

Ram wants each production licence treated as a separate cost centre, with its own costs recovered only from its own production, and the recovery ceiling cut from 75 percent to 50 percent – a figure common across producing jurisdictions.

Article 20.1(d)(iii)(gg) provides that “all costs included in the approved abandonment programme and budget shall be Recoverable Contract Costs,” recovered on a unit-of-production basis. In plain terms, Guyana pays for the clean-up out of the oil. On this point, Ram observed, the 2016 agreement is weaker than the one it replaced.

He wants decommissioning costs borne solely by the companies and expressly excluded from recovery; the sums set aside held in cash in a ring-fenced account in Guyana rather than existing as a paper undertaking; and guarantees given by the ultimate parent companies themselves, not by an unnamed affiliate.

Ram also wants all tax benefits – including withholding taxes on interest, dividends etc.,be removed from Affiliated Companies since they do not contribute to any activity in the sector.  Ram has previously estimated that had ordinary withholding rates applied to remittances, Guyana would have collected approximately GY$409 billion.

In conclusion, Ram said that Woods has spoken to his shareholders. This Government has yet to speak to its own. The time to speak, he said, is while Exxon still needs something from Guyana.

Ram notes that the Government has been silent on the announcement by Woods. This is not time for distraction. It is time for Action.

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• Contract, Exxon, ExxonMobil, payment of taxes, renegotiation, royalty, Stabroek Block, taxes, unlimited guarantee

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