Dear Editor,
Recently there has been much speculation and many questions raised in public and the press relating to Guyana’s oil and gas prospects. The main reason for this, I would argue, is simply that people do not know exactly what has been agreed with ExxonMobil, and the government refuses to release the contract. In March of this year, Minister Trotman, the sector minister, was quoted at a media breakfast as saying that with regard to “full disclosure at this point in time, I think government is of the view that full disclosure would not be to the best of the national benefit or national interest”.
Quite the contrary. It is in Guyana’s best interest to release the contract signed with ExxonMobil for three reasons. First, Guyanese need to know exactly what will be Guyana’s share of oil production. There are many qualified Guyanese around the world who are willing and able to assist and/or verify the accuracy of the economic modelling, sensitivity analysis and simulations, but refusing to release the contract severely circumscribes that possibility. Second, knowing Guyana’s take will also allow Guyanese and their representatives to track the money received so that it does not end up in public officials’ bank accounts, which has always been the single most common casualty for resource rich countries having no or low growth adjusted over time. The third reason is oil and gas investors usually benchmark their investment on the economic modelling of existing hydrocarbon plays adjusted to operational fiscal regimes, so that they could rank global investment opportunities. There is currently global excitement about Guyana’s oil and gas basin but the government’s refusal to release the contract is severely restricting investment decisions by oil and gas companies.
The real question is why the secrecy? What is so much in the national interest that the contract cannot be released? The position of the APNU+AFC government is a volte face in terms of their pre-election campaign promise for transparency. More importantly, it is a U-turn on the campaign promise to fight corruption.
If the APNU+AFC government is seriously interested in Guyana’s development then they must release the contract with ExxonMobil now. And if all Guyanese, regardless of which party they support, want to receive the benefits of oil and gas production and not just the recent perpetual promise thereof they must demand from the government the contract’s immediate release.
Yours faithfully,
Charles S Ramson
