President Irfaan Ali has been asked to publicly indicate just how much oil Exxon Mobil has produced in the Liza Phase 1 development and clarify for the public how much has been accessed for operational use under Article 11.9 of their Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with Guyana.
In a letter dated September 27 and seen by Stabroek News, attorney Melinda Janki reminded that under Article 11.9 of the PSA, ExxonMobil and its partners have the right to use any amount of the oil produced for its “Petroleum Operations”. Janki stressed that according to the PSA any oil used or lost in these operations is “excluded from any calculations of Cost Oil and Profit Oil.”
The lawyer argues this “free oil” is missing from the standard financial assessments of the PSA which have instead focused on the Cost Oil provision which grants ExxonMobil et al 75% of production for however long they continue to explore as well as half of profit oil.