Former Petroleum Advisor to the Government, Dr. Jan Mangal, is not surprised by the glowing reports of Rystad Energy, a Norwegian research company, which predicts that Guyana will get massive returns from its oil deal with ExxonMobil.
That’s because Dr. Mangal says that Rystad Energy is part of ExxonMobil’s lobbying machine.
In his Facebook page, Dr. Mangal said, “I had discussions with Wood Mackenzie (A UK Company that also foresees massive oil wealth for Guyana) and Rystad in Houston regarding possible support for a country like Guyana to challenge a company like Exxon. After a couple months of discussion with Wood Mackenzie, they called me and were very apologetic.”
Oil and Gas Consultant, Dr. Jan Mangal
He added, “They could not continue to talk with me. Their executives were worried their interaction with me would annoy Exxon, and most of their revenue comes from oil companies (including Exxon). So Guyanese, please always apply the rule of ‘follow the money’ when assessing the information being provided to you (i.e. check if your source could be biased, and remember money is one of the strongest drivers for bias).”
Dr. Mangal pointed out, too, that Rystad and Wood Mackenzie are competitors for Exxon’s business; hence, they will compete to please ExxonMobil.
“But Rystad is the newer and smaller of the two, the upstart, thus it will be more aggressive in its actions to please Exxon, that is, to curry favour with Exxon. That is why Rystad is prepared to produce drivel like this.”