– Part 98
Introduction
Last week’s column began a short series on the 2021 financial performance of the three companies – Esso, Hess and CNOOC – which hold 45%, 30%, and 25% respectively of the highly productive Stabroek Block, a find which has placed Guyana on the world’s petroleum map. CNOOC is the newest participant in the arrangement, having paid ExxonMobil in 2014 to acquire a 25% working interest in the Block as a “non-operated joint venture partner”. Why and how CNOOC could pay Exxon rather than the Guyana entity which held the licence is something which no one has yet been able to explain. What this shows is how naïvely reckless Guyana has been in dealings with Esso and why Exxon is seen as dishonest, exploitative, and contemptuous of Third World countries.