(Kaieteur News) – President of ExxonMobil Guyana Ltd (EMGL), Alistair Routledge, shared the incredible news during a recent luncheon. All citizens should see through his representations immediately. They are about what is best for EMGL’s parent company, and never concerned about what is best for Guyana. Routledge’s words over lunch were a giveaway.
“Some have raised questions about ring-fencing. Should every project be ring-fenced? In some places that happens. I would say in deep water, which is what we are talking about here, that is something we should be cautious about.” Note that when ExxonMobil’s interests are impacted, “we” is heard. When ExxonMobil is stubbornly resistant to a development, like ring-fencing, Routledge cleverly uses “we.” Guyana is part of the resistance. Guyana is the partner recognised, when it is convenient, and made to appear as though it supports ExxonMobil’s programme. That programme features profit maximising by any means and doing whatever is required.
Ring-fencing gives the company carte blanche to keep spending on oil projects and to keep passing on leftover costs to neighbouring projects. It is a path to continuously milking of Guyana through billions in expenses that carryforward from year to year and project to project, a cash cow that is a bonanza. Why would ExxonMobil agree to give that up? Why should the Government of Guyana be a party to keep going along with such a sticky arrangement? One that always leaves this country trapped in a mountain of expenses. Company expenses in their many billions, which enjoy the lightest audit touch. Audits which are then kept a secret from the citizens of this country to whom this national oil patrimony belongs. No ring-fencing is a multinational corporation’s dream come true. This is what the EMGL president was so determinedly drawing his line against.
It is obvious that ExxonMobil Guyana and ExxonMobil US have heard the clamour coming from different parts of Guyana for new oil projects to be ring-fenced. In Routledge’s words, it is also obvious that the company’s chiefs have a hard time in dealing with the change that is being called for. It must never be forgotten that this is the company that took advantage of a naïve and sloppy APNU+AFC Guyana Government, and foisted that rotten 2016 oil deal on the nation and citizens. The result is that a choking financial yoke has been wrapped around the necks of generations of citizens, and all the advantages (money and conditions) in ExxonMobil’s favour. Never to be forgotten also is how ExxonMobil is cagey with how much oil has been found in eight new oil discoveries, yet Routledge speaks of “we.” Never to be forgotten is how cleanup millions are held not by Guyana, but by the company (and its president sells “we”).
A Commonwealth Secretariat group warned Guyana about the danger, only for President Ali to fly off the handle. Similarly, the IMF, the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Program, and others, have urged Guyana to take action and ring-fence new oil projects. The fact that ExxonMobil, with Routledge in the ‘Pit Bull role’, is against all of those reputable names, indicates that it is reaping a rich harvest from Guyana’s oil by insisting that ring-fencing is not the best thing for Guyana.
The EMGL president has his cards to play, and play them he did. “Ring-fencing…doesn’t change the gross revenue the country sees. What it does is change the timing.” The fact that ExxonMobil is digging in its heels against ring-fencing is a giveaway. Guyana has much to gain, ExxonMobil has too much to lose. So, fighting against it is a must, and that will not change on the company’s side. Guyana, as a party to the 2016 oil deal, is the one that must force change.
President Ali has sought expert advice about changes. We think that credible experts would recommend material changes, but those could be kept secret. Because ring-fencing new projects would upset ExxonMobil. Last, Routledge is the last person the government or citizens should listen to about what “maximizes value” for Guyana. Its own 2016 contract has suffocated this country, minimised its returns. EMGL’s president should say silent, go home, or, inform his executives that the time for ring-fencing in Guyana has come.
Source: Kaieteur News
