One year after rushing to sign the lopsided Stabroek Block Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with ExxonMobil, the APNU+AFC administration allowed the company’s Liza Phase One permit to be approved on the same day the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project.
Exposing this revelation yesterday was international lawyer, Melinda Janki.
In a statement to the press, Janki said she is one of the lawyers representing former Transparency International Guyana Inc (TIGI) Head, Dr. Troy Thomas in a lawsuit against the EPA. The regulatory body is being sued for giving ExxonMobil a 20-year permit when the law only allows for five-year permits to be issued. During her compilation of evidence for the case, Janki found that the permit issued for Liza Phase One was issued on June 1, 2017, the same day the regulatory body received the EIA which contains around 1500 pages.
Taking this into account, Janki said, “The environmental permit for Liza Phase One, states that it was granted on the basis of the Environmental Impact Assessment dated 1st June 2017. But the environmental permit is also dated June 1, 2017. When did the agency review the 1,500 pages EIA? And what else did they miss? Guyana’s people deserve a candid assessment of this project because they are the ones who will live with its consequences.”