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The Guyana-China card – Part 2
(Kaieteur News) – If President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo are truly serious about contract renegotiations, they have an ace. It’s Guyana’s China card. China wants something. Exxon (America) wants something. Guyana wants something. I repeat if the Ali-Jagdeo led PPP Govt is really committed to exploring every avenue to get Exxon to the renegotiation table, the China card waits. To be used skillfully. It hinges on one flagpole. Pres Ali and VP Jagdeo are dedicated heart and soul to doing whatever is required to bring Exxon around to more for Guyana.
There’s a question in two parts. Is Pres Ali, VP Jagdeo, all about doing better for this country, or doing what’s best for the People’s Progressive Party? Doing what’s best for the PPP means doing absolutely nothing that worries Exxon. Guyanese should see through this farce about ‘sanctity of contract.’ It’s supposed to be the perfect shield for the PPP of Ali and Jagdeo. Hold sanctity of contract aloft (like a formidable, impenetrable shield) and the battle is over. But the contract itself has that soft spot: once one of the parties wants to talk, the other must meet and listen. The negative is that Drs. Ali and Jagdeo are so mortally fearful that they distance from that contract opening. The casualties could be too costly. The first would be the PPP. And, by tarnation, that will not be risked, not even whispered.
Now, I retrieve the central thrust of today’s public service. If Ali and Jagdeo are sincere about a level oil playing field, then they will explore and maximise the China option. This shouldn’t be initiated by Guyanese nonentities (like me). Guyana’s Foreign Ministry should already have constructed its approach to China. Some may say that seeking to drive a wedge between CNOOC and Exxon is improper. I counter. What did Washington do in Caracas to extract Maduro, achieve its objectives? Precedent and practice; there’s Guyana’s blueprint. Try another piece of evidence that could be helpful to the Guyana Government’s position (if such is honest).Exxon had insisted on silence relative to the amount of new oil in eight recent discoveries. Exxon announced the discoveries. Then, Exxon renounced any association with new quantities of oil found. Enter CNOOC, consortium member. When Exxon was secretive, CNOOC was informative: 746,000 barrels reported in its company documents from one of the eight new discoveries. The Chinese were open when the Americans shuttered communications about new barrels of oil. I wrote of this in KN in March 2024. The American push to get China out of Guyana was not pronounced then. Today, it is.
I assert, therefore, that the PPP Govt would be treachery itself, if it were not to interpret China’s past independent action (746,000 barrels from Bluefin) as prioritising its own interests first. Guyana’s national interests mandate that the Guyana Government, Guyana’s leaders, and Guyana’s Foreign Ministry take a page out of America-in-Venezuela book and pursue what holds immense benefits for the Guyanese people. This isn’t about nationalisation of oil. Or abandoning America. It’s about using the American tactic of divide and rule to Guyana’s advantage. It may be about waving a red flag before the Exxon bull. It would be a Guyana peace pipe shared with China. If I were CEO Darren Woods, and in the spirit of the authentic partnership he extols, he could throw Guyana a few slices out of its own oil pie. Ringfencing. Taxes at 10 percent. Other knickknacks. Wouldn’t cost Exxon much. Why be greedier than Midas? Why resemble a groper and predator than a father and partner?
There’s a crippling handicap in all this. Does the PPP want this? The PPP Govt has repeatedly demonstrated beyond any doubt that it’s only priority is this. Stay in power, whatever has to be sold, sacrificed, surrendered. There are two incomparable, unconquerable, pluses.
Exxon and America are pleased. And, the PPP in power gets to steal this country blind (and dry) and protects that wealth. American Justice writ large. The intriguing China card offers a way out.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)
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GHK Lall, you have nothing to lose but the nation’s interest & survival are necessary & important!!! It’s not prudent to ‘renegotiate’ the oil contract & venture into uncharted water and end up like the “dog & bone”!!!
Suffice to say the PPP/C is practicing Realpolitik’!!
Sorry GHK Lall , you sounded like a novice where politics is concerned!!!