In the face of concerns that his administration has only paid lip service to transparency in its stewardship of the oil and gas sector, President Irfaan Ali on Monday announced that government is building a dedicated website to publish all available information.
“We are working now on a website that will have all the production details; that will have all the revenue details… that will have all the expenditure details. We are presently putting that system and institution in place,” Ali told a virtual press conference on Monday when asked about the lack of transparency and information on the sector.
“I do not believe that we have been hiding anything as it relates to the oil and gas sector,” he further contended as he claimed that “every piece of information that the government has, every discussions we have had… has been made public and shared with the public.”
But contrary to what the president said, government has been largely silent on a number of issues in the sector and information is not readily available to the press or the public.
Stabroek News has made numerous efforts to no avail to get an official answer on oil sales and the arrangement for this country’s profit share, as per the agreement it has with ExxonMobil and partners for the Liza-1 development in the Stabroek Block.
This newspaper has for weeks also reached out to government to access information on how many lifts of one million barrels each Guyana has received, how many more are scheduled for 2021, the current marketer and the terms for marketing the oil, and other general information on the oil and gas sector.
This country had to learn through a Twitter statement that the last 1 million barrels of oil was lifted by the Indian Oil Corporation last month. Before that, the last reported lift was on April 13, 2021, of 998,645 barrels of oil from the Liza Destiny. Its value was pegged at US$62,617,616.23.
Also, no explanation was given as to why the new tender criteria for an oil marketer was not made public and why interested companies had to first write the Ministry of Natural Resources for this information.
There has also been no word on the IHS Markit audit of Exxonmobil’s US$460 million pre-contract costs, save for the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) earlier this year saying it was completed but that the submission was bungled because of the form in which it was delivered.
The Alison Redford Report and terms of reference of her contract are still outstanding, despite promises since last year that it would be made public.
In addition, government is still to say how it would address the contract with ExxonMobil and partners that says that the Minister responsible for the sector has to pay GRA the sums owed in taxes, given that it was pointed out by a number of legal experts that it is contrary to this country’s laws.
A number of calls were made and emails dispatched to Ministry of Natural Resources officials and Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat to no avail.
While Ali did not provide clarity on any of the aforementioned areas, he said that government is boosting its capacity to ensure all areas are covered and that this country has competent human resources to ensure oversight.
“The government itself is identifying technically competent support staff that will come on stream with us in a new structure that we’re designing for the oil and gas sector, to do the analysis in all areas you have outlined and to present their findings to the population. We have recently advertised for various posts within the unit. It is our hope that very soon, we’ll be able to put together the structure, put together the team, so that we can further enhance our work in creating a transparent and open system of management and information sharing in the oil and gas sector,” he said.
“These detailed information and the outcome of the discussions will be made public and when we arrive at the final documents those will be made public,” he added.
And as it pertains to this country not having a Natural Resource Fund (NRF) operational, although oil production began since 2021, Ali promised that needed legislative reforms will be laid in the National Assembly before the end of this year.
“We are also moving ahead with setting up the legislative framework to govern these funds. And while we would have liked to have this before the recess, I am aware that there are technical suggestions being transmitted to the Attorney General to finalise the legislation to be taken to the National Assembly,” he said.
“I am confident that that legislation will be laid in the National Assembly before the end of the year,” he added.
Reminding of promises made during his presidential campaign, he said that his commitment to transparency for the oil and gas sector remains. “We committed during the campaign, that there will be no secrecy in revenues received by the country from our natural resources, especially, oil and gas, and we’ve stuck to that commitment,” he emphasised.
He said that when the oil and gas portal is completed, the public will be able to go online “examine and be kept abreast with revenues and expenditure.”