Latest update September 28th, 2026 10:20 AM
ExxonMobil’s absurdity
(Kaieteur News) – ExxonMobil is now selling Guyana’s lopsided 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) as the model for other nations. This is not just absurdity on the face of it, but ranks as a corporate comedy program that no citizen of this country should find funny.
The PPP/C Government, when it was in the opposition benches, and for a short time afterwards, had nothing positive to say about ExxonMobil’s PSA with Guyana. The record shows that today’s PPP/C Government had called that oil contract by some of the worst names imaginable. The APNU+AFC Coalition government that signed away Guyana’s future with that repulsive PSA took some time, but a few of its leading voices have publicly regretted signing that oil contract. They are for reversing it, and starting over from scratch with a renegotiated contract. A contract that embeds better terms for Guyana, and a fair share of profits to ExxonMobil for its exploration and production expertise.
While Neil Hansen, ExxonMobil’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer has his selling job to do, while holding aloft Guyana’s 2016 PSA as a fine contract standard, we at this publication put something before him. Since the ExxonMobil contract is such an exemplary corporate document of partnership, of fairness, and of what is good for the host country, we urge him to obtain testimonials to those ends from both the PPP/C Government and the APNU and AFC (and other citizens) to share with the nations he is prospecting. It would be interesting to see how much success he achieves, given that there was and is so much wrong with the ExxonMobil contract, as the major political players in Guyana have made repeatedly clear.
The PPP/C Government was a leader in denouncing the ExxonMobil contract/PSA as a tragedy for Guyana. The president himself, Irfaan Ali, had been very vocal and very clear about what his government would do with all contracts, of which the ExxonMobil contract revulsion had to be at the top of his list. Due to a government addicted to power and its retention, the PPP/C reached for what prioritises and protects its interests to the severe disadvantage of Guyana, and settled for “sanctity of contract.” A political leadership trick that takes precedence over what they themselves had termed a tragedy. The ExxonMobil 2016 contract is so much of a boon to Guyana that the president, the government, and the ministers prefer to stay far from it, unless pushed by the media and civil society activists. Since the PPP/C is on record as tearing the same ExxonMobil contract apart, Hansen can try his hand for a testimonial from the ruling party to share with those nations that he targets.
The people who approved the 2016 contract have expressed belated regret. The APNU and AFC are on record calling for the contract to be renegotiated or, at least, for some of its provisions to be reversed or scaled back. Ringfencing is one needed provision that ranks high. If Guyana’s original representatives to the 2016 PSA now experience remorse over their hasty and unschooled action, it is doubtful that they would have much of anything good to say about this contract scheme from ExxonMobil.
So, what is SVP/CFO Hansen really selling to nations that may not know what they are getting into? It could be the US$55B ExxonMobil investment that it recovered in record time. What the world should know is that more than one audit of some of that US$55B has been shrouded in secrecy, and not in quite the best shape to be shared with citizens. The major owners of Guyana’s oil wealth are kept in the dark about how that contract has worked for them, or against them, and Hansen is busy selling it. Many citizens do not believe that ExxonMobil’s expenses are straightforward, are what represents the care of a partner that can be trusted. This is not what is in the fine print, it is from tough experience.
Hansen has a right to engage in his selling ploys and games. We have a right to tell the world to watch ExxonMobil closer than a cobra. Slip a second, become a generational loser. ExxonMobil did that to Guyana with its 2016 contract.
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