Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) will support an investigation of the award of several oil blocks shortly before the 2015 general elections once it is led by an internationally recognised firm and not the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA), which it believes is biased.
“If you want to do an investigation, do the investigation, we will support it, but hire an impartial firm to do it. It can’t be SARA. SARA is not impartial… The PPP has nothing to hide…I am not worried,” Jagdeo told a press conference he hosted yesterday at his Church Street, Georgetown office.
“For any investigation into oil and gas contracts, the award of contracts, what took place at the negotiations, etcetera, for that investigation to have credibility, you cannot have SARA do it. You have to have an international organisation that has a well-known record of established transparency,” he added.
New York-based Bloomberg News last week revealed that SARA Director Professor Clive Thomas had confirmed that an investigation was launched into the awards of the blocks. Thomas subsequently told this newspaper that it was specific information from several “whistleblowers” that sparked the investigation, which began close to a year ago, into the issuance of about 20 oil exploration licences here.
“We’re investigating the issuance of the licences, for example, and the various blocks… We’re building up a case. This is an area of investigation into how the blocks were allocated and the decisions that were made,” Thomas was quoted as saying.
Stabroek News had previously reported that days before the May 11th, 2015 general and regional elections, in which the PPP/C was voted out after over two decades in power, then President Donald Ramotar had signed a contract with JHI and Associates (Guyana) Inc for the Canje Block. Mid-Atlantic Oil & Gas Inc and ExxonMobil, which is Block Operator, also have participating interests in the Canje Block. In February of last year, French oil major Total announced that it had bought a 35% working interest in the Canje Block, in an agreement it signed with both JHI and Mid-Atlantic Oil & Gas Inc. The two companies, it said, will retain a shared 30% interest alongside operator ExxonMobil.
Ramotar told Stabroek News recently that the then Minister of Natural Resources Robert Persaud had made a case for JHI and Mid-Atlantic Oil and Gas Inc.
Just prior to the 2015 elections, Ramotar had also signed an agreement with Ratio Energy Limited and Ratio Guyana Limited for the Kaieteur Block. He has said that his award of contracts to the companies shortly before the elections should not be seen as questionable.
Concerns about the deals relate to whether there had been advance knowledge of ExxonMobil’s major find and whether that information had been used to tie up new deals.
Yesterday, Ramotar also said that he welcomed any investigation as he was confident that there would be no irregularities found. He also echoed Jagdeo’s position that while he has no problem with an investigation, he does not believe that SARA should be the executing agency as he does not believe it is capable of undertaking an impartial investigation.
“I have no problem with them investigating but clearly SARA is not the body to do such a job. Get an international company and it must be one that is recognised. I am convinced that SARA is not only political but it is also illegal. There is a court case right now to determine their legality. The directors and staff are illegal, so they themselves need investigating,” Ramotar told Stabroek News.
“It is very clear from SARA’s statements that they are vindictive, full of bile and, therefore, cannot be objective. I am not the least bit worried of any investigation. I said what I said already and maintain that we have nothing to hide,” he added.
The companies that have blocks in the deep water area, offshore Guyana, are: Repsol and Tullow Oil (the Kanuku Block); Tullow (the Orinduik Block); Anadarko (the Roraima Block); Ratio Oil (the Kaieteur Block); ExxonMobil, CNOOC Nexen and Hess (the Stabroek Block); ExxonMobil, Mid Atlantic and JHI (the Canje Block); CGX (the Demerara and Corentyne blocks); ON Energy; and Nabi. All were granted
contracts during the PPP/C’s time in office.
Thomas told this newspaper that there are several companies that have control of those blocks. He said that SARA has not reached the stage of speaking directly to the companies that were awarded exploration licences. “Now we are doing primarily desk research…,” he said, before adding that they have material to work with and have already spoken to the local people who have a role in the sector, such as the Department of Energy (DoE).
Thomas insisted that there is “substantial” information to continue the investigation. “You see the big problem is most people in Guyana confuse information with evidence. There is a lot of information out there…but to get evidence that there was something illegal going on, that’s the difficult step…and that requires a lot of investigative effort,” he added.
Thomas explained that a “mix of several things” led to the commencement of the investigation. He noted that some individuals had called and written to the agency and indicated that there should be a serious focus on the awards. Some of them, he related, had specific information and acted “more or less as whistleblowers and that started our investigation.”
“We have a lot of players [and] what is causing the concern is that some of the players don’t have any capital or skills in the area for which they have licences, so that raises a red flag. Why did they get these licences?” Thomas told this newspaper, before adding that once evidence of wrongdoing is found, civil recovery proceedings could be filed.
