Although saying he would support an investigation of oil exploration agreements that were made while the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) was in office, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday maintained that it would have to be conducted by an international firm that is agreed to by all the political parties as well as the private sector.
Asked at a news conference what features of a credible investigation he foresaw, Jagdeo also said that it must have clearly defined terms of reference (ToR).
Jagdeo has already said that his party will support an investigation of the award of exploration licences 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.
He maintained yesterday that the investigation must be done by an international company which is not based here and added that the company must be agreed to by all parties involved.
It is for this reason that he pointed out that the local private sector should also have a part in the selection of the company and the terms of reference for the investigation.
“I think we would work out national terms of reference. Get everyone together, get the private sector, get the political parties, and do clear terms of reference so that everyone is at one. Then there is the scope of the investigations. Should it cover everyone? I feel it should cover everyone. So you identify the scope of the investigations, you come up with the terms of reference and then you, maybe, approach an international organisation of repute to do this. I can’t tell you exactly how but somebody who is not part of our landscape; somebody that can bring an impartial view for all sides, the oil companies as well as the government of Guyana and the people of Guyana, can have credibility. We won’t feel we are treated unfairly, too. They don’t feel it is a witch hunt against them,” he said.
“That sort of approach we can support that. We can’t support this SARA doing this. They are too partisan,” he added.
More than a year ago, this newspaper had reported on the concerns about JHI and Mid-Atlantic Oil and Gas Inc. (MOGI) gaining access to the Canje block and later farming in big players like French oil major Total in what would be lucrative deals. Another company, Ratio, also secured a deal.
While the APNU+AFC government had taken a hands off approach on these deals, SARA has announced an investigation of the awards to JHI and Mid-Atlantic based on whistleblower information.
Such has been the publicity and interest surrounding the probe that JHI and MOGI have taken out whole page advertisements in the daily newspapers to defend the deals.
Former Minister of Natural Resources Robert Persaud, the key decision-maker in the awards of the petroleum prospecting licences for the blocks, has also claimed that since the change of government in 2015, he has made himself available to answer questions.
“From the time of the current government’s assumption of office I have always made myself available for clarification and/or elaboration on policy decisions and actions taken in relation to my ministerial portfolios,” Persaud has written on his Facebook page.
Patently
“However, I will not be dragged into what is patently an elections propaganda campaign issue by a politically-controlled state agency and being promoted by sections of the media and so-called oil and gas ‘experts’ and ‘advisors’ one of whom to my knowledge was until recently one of the applicants for the award of an exploration block as part of a local business group”, he said.
Jagdeo said that he could not speak for Persaud or former president Donald Ramotar and if there are questions about communication between the two relating to the deals, then they would be the best persons to address it.
He also said an investigation should also not be limited to the blocks before the 2015 general elections, as he believes that an investigation could include the renegotiated 1999 contract signed between the APNU+AFC government and ExxonMobil in 2016, which was one year after oil was discovered and for which the country received a US$18 million signing bonus. But he doesn’t believe that government would want to include the 2016 renegotiations because it would show that that it had failed to get a “fair deal for this country.”
Pointing to the 600 oil blocks that Exxon was given in the 1999 contract and which Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc says is in contravention of Guyana’s law, which provides for a maximum award of only 60 blocks, Jagdeo said that he had “no apologies” for the terms agreed to in 1999 and stressed that government had a chance to strengthen it in 2016.
“Instead of strengthening, where you maintain the relinquishment position….this government weakened the relinquishment provision,” he said. “I have made it clear that if you had better contract administrations, we would have gotten a better deal.”
“If there is a need for an independent investigation, we will support it,” he further said, while calling on government to “just do it.”
