ExxonMobil repaid, what Guyana got paid

Aug 24, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – ExxonMobil’s CEO, Darren Woods, was proud to say it, set himself up for good things. The company’s US$55B investment in Guyana’s oilfields has been repaid. That is great for ExxonMobil, something worth boasting about, especially when that achievement was two years in advance. What about Guyana, what did it get paid in? Was it the highest form of auditing ability and expertise, or is it something still to be fully settled? We do not know, and the verdict of the jury is still being waited on. But the numbers are known, and they do not leave in the best of places.

ExxonMobil took out, grabbed back, its US$55B straight from the top of oil revenues. It was second in line, with only Guyana’s meager 2% royalty ahead of the company. It is a nice arrangement. A still better arrangement finalised with the Guyana Government was what involved audits of that same US$55B investment that was spent. To state frankly, what have been called audits. To make matters simple, ExxonMobil’s US$55B investment can be broken into two tranches. The first tranche was for US$28.5B in the company’s expenses, which were reviewed in three separate audits. The second tranche was for US$26.5B which has not been audited. But what does that matter now, since ExxonMobil has already recovered its entire investment in Guyana?

A British firm, IHS Markit, spearheaded the first audit of US$1.7B in ExxonMobil’s expenses, which covered from 1999-2017. Findings amounted to US$214M in wrongly charged expenses. Years later, both the Guyana Government and ExxonMobil are still wrangling over that US$214M in findings. We at this paper hold the view that Guyana got an audit that was worth every dollar of the fee charged by IHS Markit. Unfortunately, there is not the same degree of confidence on the other two audits.

The second audit covered from 2018-2020, and involved US$7.2B in ExxonMobil’s expenses. Findings totaled an incredible US$65.1M. After the IHS Markit audit exposed ExxonMobil’s expense practices for what they were, the company must have initiated a thorough overhaul of what it charges Guyana for, and how much. On the other hand, it could be that the auditors looked where they wished, saw what they wanted to see, and found what they wanted to find. It is an amazing feat of expense charging and accounting self-improvement by ExxonMobil. It could also be that Guyana’s auditors got bogged down in wading through a mountain of pages, and were forced to make some judgment calls on the run. It is worth looking at again: a mere US$65.1M in findings out of a massive US$7.2B in expenses. That borders on the fantastic: 0.009% in findings, nowhere close to 1% of wrongly charged expenses. It is ExxonMobil’s housecleaning taken to an unprecedented level, or an audit that was prevented from giving its very best for Guyana.

The third and biggest audit to date was for US$19.6B. It was completed over a year ago. It has since been bogged down in the local bureaucracy, with no indication of its findings, if any, seeping into the public frame. We are compelled to say ‘if any’ relative to findings from this third audit. The report is being treated as a secret. Also, since ExxonMobil cleaned up its act so diligently, and did so well on the second audit, it may have done even better than that 0.009% in findings from the second audit. Guyanese are still waiting to get some idea of how their billions in oil revenues were spent by ExxonMobil. The company has all of its investment back in its treasury. Meanwhile, observers and citizens are still grasping at straws to determine what it is that Guyana got from its second and third audits of US$26.8B in expenses claimed by ExxonMobil.

Guyanese oil money is precious, and it should be treated as such, almost like a sacred trust. ExxonMobil is fighting Guyana for years over US$214M in questionable expenses. Who is fighting with their everything for Guyana? Turning up every stone, peering around corners, pushing back against resisters and schemers, so that Guyana gets full value for its billions spent. By ExxonMobil. as claimed. From its own auditors, as agreed upon and probably already paid.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Cost Recovery, Editorial, expenses, ExxonMobil, Guyana’s oilfields

Latest News