The major newspapers have warned them. The major newspapers dedicate lots of newspaper space daily to educate the nation about oil. The international group Global Witness of London has warned them. The diaspora group Oil and Gas Governance Network (OGGN) has warned them. The IMF has warned them. The International think-tank Chatham House of London has warned them. Mr. Ramon Gaskin, and “A Fair Deal for Guyana” campaign has warned them.
Distinguished Guyanese heroes such as Attorneys Christopher Ram and Melinda Janki, and Dr. Jan Mangal have warned them. Caribbean experts such as Anthony Paul and Kevin Ramnarine have warned them. Many letters to the editors have warned them. Yet the Government has decided to march to the beat of its own drum, ignoring all others, and is rushing to approve the permit for the Payara oil blocks, although they said they would not rush. In its usual triumphalist approach, the PPP seem to have chosen to continue to govern the same way it has always governed, and has just picked up where it left off in 2015. It seems unmindful that it has a mere one-seat majority. The transparency promised by the President is missing.
The PPP government seems hell bent on going down the same road as the PNC in not honouring its election promises. People are saying the PNC and PPP are two sides of the same coin. In the election campaign, the PPP conveniently used the Global Witness oil report which says the PNC signed a bad deal that robs us of US$55 billion. Mr. Datadin and Mr. Ramson repeated that in their budget speeches in Parliament. “Shame on the PNC, let’s kick them out for selling us out,” the PPP told us. It was the same Global Witness report that said Guyana should use the approval of the Payara oil permit as a leverage point to renegotiate for a better deal. But the PPP is not listening. If the PNC signed a bad deal and sold us out, now that the PPP is in, why is it continuing the bad deal? Is it not wrong when the PPP does it? Exxon badly wants to move forward with the very lucrative Payara oil development and this is the leverage point for Guyana. If we don’t renegotiate now, when?
It is widely felt that the Government sent EPA Head Dr. Vincent Adams on leave because he was reading the riot act to Exxon about environmental concerns and violations such as flaring and oil spills, and was about to take them to court. Saying he was AFC and a political appointee seems to be just a pretext to move him out of the way. Nation, why would our own government remove the expert official who was enforcing the rules for the benefit of Guyana? Does this action serve the interests of Exxon or the interests of Guyana? Can the government say what are the compelling reasons why it does not want to request a renegotiation of the oil contract? Why did the Government not release the Canadian review report? If there is a way to renegotiate the contract, does the Government have the will to do so? Can the Government say if it made a secret deal with anyone to not renegotiate the contract to gain sympathies and acceptance from any quarter? If this is so, in effect, the people of Guyana has paid US$55 billion for the PPP to win favour, in an election it won fairly.
Nation, whatever agreement the Government signs to grant the Payara licence, we would remain a “shole” country living in persistent poverty, unless we have changes as follows: 1. more royalty, 2. more profit sharing, 3. correcting the error of Guyana awarding 600 oil blocks above the 60-block minimum permitted by Guyana law, 4. Exxon paying taxes, as required by Guyana law, 5. efficiently auditing the costs submitted by Exxon to make sure we are not getting robbed of US$ millions through inflated expenses reports, 6. Exxon providing detailed cost expense reports that are easily auditable, 7. better local content, 8. Exxon paying for all oil spills from its own profit share not chargeable as a cost to Guyana’s profit share, 9. Increasing the time limit for completion of audits from the current two-year deadline to a 7-year deadline, 10. Reverting the 24-year EPA permit to 5 years. More importantly, given Guyana’s woeful audit capacity and dearth of oil professionals, we should consider moving from a Profit Sharing Agreement (PSA) model to a “Royalty only” model. The “Royalty only” model reduces the auditing functions and activities related to selling profit oil. But alas, this Government does not need advice from anyone else. They forget they are servants of the people, think they own the country’s natural resources and they alone have all the answers. Shame on this PPP government for selling out the working poor of Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Jerry Jailall