Dear Editor,
In a panel interview at the Global Business Forum – LATAM (Latin America) – in Dubai this week, President Ali did a good job selling Guyana as an investment destination. In Dubai – not in Guyana – he also announced his “sellout” position on renegotiation of current oil contracts, echoing what the VP said previously that the PPP Government will not renegotiate the contracts (see http://www.oggn.org/wp-content/ uploads/2022/03/IrfaanAliRenegsOnRenegotiationPromise20220323.mp4). I feel this is a reckless decision that may yet prove interesting for the PPP in 2025. KN released a conversation where the PPP Presidential Candidate is on record as criticizing the current contract, saying it’s acceptable only to the PNC. The PPP did promise in their 2020 Manifesto and election campaign that everything is up for “review and renegotiation.” That was the “mega jackpot, mother of all promises.” Did they deliberately deceive the nation just to get elected?
The CNN Interviewer, John Defterio, asked President Ali: “…You had Exxon Mobil, Hess and the consortium there that brought those fields on board and everybody has this kind of Monday morning quarter backing as we say in the States. We could have done better with the Production Sharing Agreement. But let’s put this to rest if you will. You have an agreement. You’re going to have more exploration in the county. You have great deposits. Uh, how… how do you summarize where we are today?” President Ali said: “Well you have really said it. We have an agreement. You have to honour that agreement. But we have made it very clear that there needs to be improvement on future agreements and we are going to make those improvements on future agreements. We inherited an agreement ah but you have to respect that agreement and… in future agreements there will be improvements. But uhm… one of the important things now is to have more investment in exploration. Now we have made it very clear that we are supporting great investment not only in exploration but development. Hm. And Exxon has been pushing a lot of their investment in Guyana. We’re looking to move up to 1.2 million barrels per day, ah very within the next 3, 4 years, 5 years. Um that of course is going to help us to accelerate development in other areas….”
Editor, KN, Mr. Glenn Lall, many Civil Society groups including the Oil and Gas Governance Network (www.OGGN.org), Article 13, TIGI, “Our Wealth, Our Country,” and others have been calling for renegotiation of current oil contracts that give Guyana a gross income of 14.5% of total sales which includes a measly 2% royalty, while Exxon and friends get 85.5% of all oil income. As one Pastor in the protest line puts in – imagine you have a coconut farm. You allow a person to come on your farm to pick 100 coconuts for you. The person gives you 15 coconuts and takes 85 coconuts. Which of you will agree to a deal like this? Is this a fair deal? Whose coconut farm is this? Yours or the picker? Now suppose you want to make brooms to use. That picker tells you that you have to buy the coconut tree branches from him. Would you be OK with that deal or would you be enraged and chase him off the farm? That’s what will happen with the gas-to-shore project. We have to buy our own gas from the oil companies! “We are tenants in our own land.” Editor, can you believe the PNC signed a contract like that, and the PPP says they have to honour that, rather than ask for renegotiation, as is allowed by those same bad contracts? Instead of asking for renegotiation, the PPP Government is on the same side with Exxon defending a bad PNC contract versus Glenn Lall representing the people of Guyana. Is this a betrayal of the people? Treasonous? Why did the PPP Government not launch a Commission of Enquiry into how the contract was signed?
If both major parties are refusing to change the oil and gas contracts, they should worry that they are inviting the emergence of a new Third Force. We fought against rigging and fought hard for the PPP to win believing they will keep their promise to renegotiate the oil contracts. This revelation by the President that the contract is OK seems to open the door for Concerned Guyanese to start now to build a new Third Force. Does the nation sit by and allow politicians to give away the national patrimony, and the rich get richer while the poor get poorer and are catching hell every day? Unless Guyana gets more income from oil, poor people will be destitute forever until they die. Editor, would you vote for those usual suspects who come to you and tell you not to “split the vote?” Or would you think about changing the current system where the two major parties have kept us destitute although we are the richest nation in CARICOM with the most natural resources? Think about it! Neither the PNC nor PPP owns Guyana. They are trustees. They also do not own your vote. Your vote is sacred and belongs to you. We can vote them in and vote them out. They work for us! So, when they tell you don’t vote for a Third Force, you will split the vote, reject such a racist notion and run them out of town for insulting you. It’s our wealth and our country. If both parties refuse to renegotiate for a better deal, let’s take back Guyana! Wake Up Guyanese!
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
