Oil major ExxonMobil says that it will not make any contributions to political parties for the March 2, 2020 general and regional elections.
Asked by Stabroek News if the company would be contributing to any party’s campaign financing in any way, ExxonMobil’s Public and Government Affairs Advisor Janelle Persaud said that the company never takes a political stance and will continue to do that.
“It is our policy to refrain from making contributions to political candidates and/or political parties, except as permitted by applicable laws. We have not and will not make political contributions in Guyana,” she said.
“ExxonMobil has worked with successive governments over the years that we’ve operated in Guyana and we will continue to partner with the country to develop its resources in a safe and mutually beneficial way, regardless of the political party in power,” Persaud said.
Meantime, with some observers pointing out that the three week earlier than scheduled arrival of ExxonMobil’s Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel could see first oil production before the March 2nd, 2020 elections, the company says that its schedule is in no way hinged on the politics of this or any other country.
“The coming weeks are a critical time period where progress can be impacted by weather and a number of others factors. However, we will not accelerate or delay first oil based on factors unrelated to our operational activities,” Persaud told Stabroek News.
She said that a specific date for first oil could not be given as there are several factors that go into oil production and this makes it “difficult to identify a specific date for first oil.”
She related that currently, the company is in “the hookup and commissioning phase” for the Liza Destiny FPSO vessel.
Against the backdrop of the early arrival of the Liza Destiny FPSO vessel here, Head of the Department of Energy Dr Mark Bynoe has hinted of earlier than scheduled production of first oil. At the vessel’s commissioning ceremony last month, the Department of Public Information reported Bynoe as saying that the FPSO’s arrival in the Stabroek Block on August 29, 2019, three weeks ahead of schedule means that “our timetable has moved forward and, as policy-related body, the Department of Energy is also called upon to advance its timetable. It means that we move earlier to production of first oil and to seeing the benefits of this industry impact Guyanese much faster.”
Some observers have posited that first oil could be pumped as early as the first week of February, a month before this country goes to general elections.
In May last year, Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman had told the National Assembly’s Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources that his government had two preeminent objectives when it signed the Production Sharing Agreement with ExxonMobil and partners and that was to ensure production in the fastest possible time and that it “needed to protect the resource to say this is ours.” He made the comments against the backdrop of Venezuelan aggression towards Guyana. Trotman had also said that that the President and Cabinet sanctioned the 2016 renegotiation.
Meanwhile, with elections, which have been dubbed by both government and the opposition as “the mother of all elections,” in a few months, it is left to be seen how campaign financing and accountability of parties would be handled.
Warning since last year that the absence of updated campaign finance legislation puts the country at risk, accounting firm Ram and McRae had expressed hope that civil society would have taken the lead in ensuring that there is proper accountability by local political parties.
“It is time that all democratic forces in the country, including the political parties but also civil society, the media and important individual voices begin the call for campaign finance rules. It is time too for those Guyanese living abroad who fete our bounty hunters at election time recognise the harm they are doing when they make their contribution. They must stop it,” the firm had stated in an article in this newspaper.
Ram and McRae pointed out that with Guyana now on the international map due to the oil discoveries that have been made, it will attract the interest of countries and entities who would have their own preferences about which parties and individuals they would like to see in charge of the oil money and the economy.
“ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC/Nexen all have a huge stake in this country and would be nervous at any hint that the 2016 post-discovery Petroleum Agreement signed with the present Administration will be revisited. But they are not alone. What have come to be known as the ABCE countries – America, Britain, Canada and the European Union – all have rules regulating campaign financing. They should promote no less in this country,” the article said.
The firm observed that one of this country’s most “dangerous” ironies is that a political party is subject to less regulation than a trade union, a friendly society or a credit union.
It further said that constitutional reform was one of the major promises of the AFC as an individual party and later as a coalition partner with the APNU in 2015 and like it has with campaign financing, the “AFC has exerted absolutely no influence over its bigger partner on their commitment to constitutional reform. The words were clear and unambiguous but maybe they need repeating because the country continues to suffer from and is retarded by the absence of constitutional reform.”
