The Bridging Deed signed between the government and ExxonMobil and its partners in 2016, which purported to keep alive the 1999 Petroleum Agreement, is legally questionable, attorney and activist Christopher Ram has stated.
Writing in his column in yesterday’s Stabroek News, Ram noted that the Bridging Deed describes the contract area for the 2016 Agreement as the Stabroek Block, “being the area covered by the 1999 Agreement”. Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman had represented the government in signing the deed with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), and partners Hess Guyana Exploration Limited and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Limited.
“Someone forgot to draw to Trotman’s attention that a new licence is expressly prohibited under section 22 (2) of the [Petroleum Exploration and Production Act] which states in mandatory language that “A petroleum prospecting licence shall not be granted to an applicant in respect of a block which is, at the time the application for the grant of the licence is made, comprised in a licence already granted.” It is clear then that no amount of legal gymnastics could circumvent this express provision prohibiting a second bite of the cherry,” Ram contended.