It is sad to say that the Global Witness report, “Signed Away,” analysing EEPGL’s (the ExxonMobil controlled Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited) agreement with Guyana and the damning circumstances leading up to its signing, will not influence the vote of more than a handful of people, if so many, at the elections on March 2. The report’s main conclusion is that: “Evidence….suggests that Guyana got a bad deal because it may not have been well represented in subsequent negotiations by Minister Raphael Trotman and his team.” The report suggests that “Trotman presented Exxon with feeble negotiation terms and ignored expert advice that more financial information was needed before he signed the licence.”
Exxon was poised to announce the results of its analysis of the Liza 2 well by the end of June. If Guyana had awaited the results, as advised by hastily consulted experts, Guyana would have been in a stronger negotiating position. Shortly after the signing, Exxon announced that Liza 2 had 1.4 billion barrels of oil. To be fair to Minister Trotman, he has said that: “I am in a Cabinet of Ministers and before the contract was signed I was duly advised and duly instructed to sign it.”