Opinion
Could Guyana escape the natural resource curse? Part 6: Oil and other sectors
The previous column explored how the lack of economic research capacity might have contributed to the lopsided contract in favour of ExxonMobil. One misconception that is often expressed in various Guyanese quarters is observers like yours truly never worked in the oil industry, therefore, we do not know about negotiating a PSA-type oil contract. Indeed,…
The oil agreement is burying the hopes of Guyanese
The headline that caused me grave dismay was, ‘Exxon Contract ‒ Final –Harmon’, published in Stabroek News and dated February 23, 2018. On reading the headline, several thoughts overcame me: President Jagan would have absolutely rejected this contract; President Burnham would have never given away our birthright; Walter Rodney would never go against the people….
Guyana paying ExxonMobil to exploit its resources
Chartered Accountant, Nigel Hinds said that ExxonMobil has been able to outsmart Guyana. He said that the company is now making Guyana pay it to exploit its resources when the company should be the one paying. Guyana is now hurrying to put measures in place to monitor and assess cost recovery claims. However, it has…
10% royalty on oil production should be Guyana’s top priority
In order to capitalize on oil discovery here, the Government of Guyana must renegotiate the current petroleum agreement with ExxonMobil and its affiliates to reflect an increase from a two percent royalty to 10 per cent. This view was shared by Chartered Accountant, Nigel Hinds, who provided Kaieteur News with a detailed breakdown of opportunity…
Could Guyana escape the natural resource curse? Part 5: economic research capacity and the oil contract
Making prediction in a complex and nonlinear world often involves identifying initial conditions and then sequentially reasoning (or solving) forward. One way of knowing how well Guyana will do with its newfound oil and gas resources is to consider the initial conditions that exist in the country today. In this column and future ones, I…
Trotman must make the ExxonMobil contract public
I thank the Ministry of Natural Resources for a courteous response to my recent letter (‘Exxon’s environmental record does not bear scrutiny’ SN, March 8). However an assurance that the government is “carefully and assiduously” building the capacity of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Marine Administration Department and the Civil Defence Commission rather misses…
What is downstream?
Downstream is the processing and selling of refined products in the oil and gas business. These products just do not include gasoline and diesel, but a whole gamut of products as outlined below. The “super majors” like ExxonMobil are involved in many elements of these processes as joint venture partners in hundreds of money-spinning projects. This…
Definition of Dutch Disease, Midstream and Downstream activities
Dutch Disease explained Does a person have it? Definitely not, it is not a medical condition; it is an economic condition. In the 1960s, much natural gas was found off the coast of Holland. By the 1970s, the oil and gas rush in that country had raised the value of the DUTCH Guilders (the name of the…
How oil can place our democracy at grave risk
Guyanese should understand the goal of the oil and gas contractors: drill, extract and burn all the oil and gas resources it can acquire whenever it can in a game to balance the demand and supply globally. Guyana is just a small fish in this big pond and this is why we must always put…
Oil agreement and the President
On February 14th, the third anniversary of the Cummingsburg Accord which masterminded the victory of the APNU+AFC coalition at the 2015 general elections, President Granger was asked whether the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) between his government and ExxonMobil subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEGPL) would be renegotiated. His answer did not rise…