Dear Editor,
I went to the Leonora Technical Institute (LTI) on Friday February 3, 2023 for the presentation of EEPGL’s 6th Development (Whiptail) Project. The in-person scoping meeting was presented by Project Manager Anthony Jackson on behalf of ExxonMobil. He had also presented the 5th Project (Uaru) last year, having landed in Guyana only one day before that presentation. I had many questions then, which remained unanswered, despite promises and writing my contact information in their book. So, this time I only had two questions.
The first was for the current Liza Project gas-to-oil ratio (GOR). I had asked that question at the 5th scoping meeting. He said then that it was Uaru, not Liza we were considering, but understood that Liza figures would give an idea of what to expect for Uaru. However, since he had just arrived, he did not have the figures at hand. Nine months later, he still cannot give me an answer. This time he said he would not like to take up (the half hour) question time (they allocated) and would talk to me afterwards. When I went to him afterwards for the secret GOR he apparently did not want the rest of the public to know, he said I should ask the Ministry of Natural Resources. I replied that I asked the Ministry of Natural Resources for such information two years ago and they have not given me, a resident citizen of this country, any answer whatsoever.
The next question was for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Last time, they said they would not be answering any questions; and they have a history of never answering my questions. This time I only asked for yesterday’s oil and gas production. They could not answer and still have not answered.
The session was packed with students, with only some from the Leonora Technical Institute and the Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN) capable of pertinent questions. Moderator Alex Graham used up time waiting for students to ask elementary questions instead of allowing the members of the public to scope the project. And when the time was up, he stopped the meeting, dismissed the students (other than of LTI and SVN), and said he had another appointment. I had heard that Mr Graham was a great professional at his work, but he completely drowned that reputation by controlling the time so that the few earnest members of the public present could not be heard. At both the 5th and 6th scoping sessions, he used up valuable time extolling me as his former teacher. I will therefore have to flunk him in these instances. Only an apology to the Guyanese public at the session can restore my regard for him. A scoping meeting is to hear from the public. We were callously disregarded.
I cannot understand why Mr Jackson could not tell me the GOR. A few days later, the Ministry of Natural Resources published the rest of the unverified production data for 2022, though not in an accountable format, from which the average GOR can be estimated. The rated production level of the Liza I FPSO is 120 000 barrels per day (bpd). Exceeding the rating in ExxonMobil’s home country warrants shutdown by the regulators and jail for the operators. Not so in our Guyana. Here the operators can not only increase the rate to over 150 000 bpd, but they have also been gifted the incentive to do so with relative impunity. For that extra (150 000 – 120 000 =) 30 000 bpd of oil with an estimated GOR of over 1 300 standard cubic feet per barrel can be flared (instead of being reinjected as originally agreed) to produce 2 200 tonne (t) of carbon dioxide per day for which the EPA and the Vice-President boast that the operators are fined US$50 per t or US$110 000 per day. This is gleefully accepted by the smart oil companies, because even at a low oil price of US$50 per barrel they collect 30 000 x US$50 = $1 500 000 per day!
No one expects politicians to know everything, but their steadfast refusal to be transparent in their dealings with our natural resources flunks them in governance. No amount of Energy Conferences can sanitize that. Government apologists like to tell us that other countries burn more fossil fuel. What they don’t tell us is that the figures are transparent in those countries. The EPA and the Environmental Assess-ment Board (EAB) will have to be flunked separately for either being complicit or not being competent to do the above calculations.
The oil companies get top marks for exploitation. As a teacher most of my working life now existing on a Guyanese pension and work when I can get it, I do not have the money to fight this indecency, which perverts the expectation of the citizens for benefits the exploiters and those in tow are enjoying. So, I will no longer waste time attending EIAs and related presentations. The oil companies and their accomplices in our politics have won. Let the Guyanese people live in the hope of handouts ̶ and trust the secret management of their ‘fastest growing economy’.
Yours sincerely,
Alfred Bhulai
