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Oil discoveries
(Kaieteur News) – Oil patrimony, oil wealth, Stabroek Block, and national bonanza are all related, and have a common presence. The citizens of this Republic are recognised as the owners of what lies beneath the seas 200 kilometers from land. Are they really owners, or is that lip service that has no substance, means nothing? For one, owners are the first to know of major developments, good or bad, on any asset they own. Whatever is shared here with citizens either arrives late, arrives sketchily, or does not arrive at all. In other words, the men and women of this country, to whom the oil wealth belongs, are mostly kept in the dark. They are like strangers alongside their own world-class oil wealth.
Take the issue of oil discoveries. In terms of discoveries, citizens of this Republic, so rich on paper, have been consigned to the place of spectators at a ball game in a huge stadium. Their seats are so far away from the action, that they might as well be on another continent, or in another time zone. Whatever information they get is received secondhand from external sources. There is no information coming directly from their oil partner, ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil’s talking heads are always smoothly reassuring about how Guyana and its people are treasured as partners. Yet the true owners of Guyana’s oil are still waiting for the deference and the courtesy that are due to a respected partner. Instead, there are repeatedly disrespected and kicked around like a football by ExxonMobil and their own government.
One question is how many new barrels of oil have been found? Neither the managers of ExxonMobil nor the PPPC Government appointed managers of the nation’s oil sector feels compelled to share that detail. We at this publication believe that ExxonMobil considers its duty completed, once the Government of Guyana is informed of the number of barrels involved in a new discovery. In truth, the company has no obligation to speak directly to citizens. That is the PPPC Government’s responsibility. Still, the government has not said a word, but citizens are learning about a “big discovery” in Guyana announced at a foreign forum. That was almost two months ago towards the end of last September.
Almost two months before, during his July 31, 2026 second quarter earnings call, ExxonMobil’s CEO, Darren Woods was excited to share this news with his audience: “based on what we found already, all the drilling that we’ve done, the characterisation of that subsurface, and unleashed that in the rest of the block and have four new discovery opportunities above and beyond what we thought were opportunities. So, we’re optimistic there.” It is worth singling out and repeating: “four new discovery opportunities” and the citizens of this country learn this in a by-the-way manner.
The way that the people of this country are treated with their own oil wealth, it seems that they are unwanted obstacles or nuisances to be tolerated. Darren Woods likes to talk about Guyana and its people, and how much they matter. The relationship has taught citizens a few things about him. He is all talk, a man made of Swiss cheese, so often he leaks when his own words are examined and matched against ExxonMobil’s actions. Four new discovery opportunities (his declaration on July31st) and a “big discovery” heard about on September 23rd, and citizens are left in a state of ignorance. Unless this paper reports the developments revealed in various foreign media. This is not just unacceptable; it is an outrage, insulting to all citizens.
We believe that a multinational as clever as ExxonMobil crosses its T’s and dots it I’s when it is in interests to do so. It would have kept the PPPC Government in the loop with that “big discovery.” If ExxonMobil is so confident to describe it as “big”, then it has a sufficiency of detail (numbers), at a minimum, that necessitates sharing with the government. Why is the PPPC Government not keeping its citizens informed? What is holding it back? Does ExxonMobil feature in the decision to withhold? Citizens encounter the same old handicaps: a PPPC Government that degrades them, a partner in ExxonMobil that dismisses them with its secrets.
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