Maintaining that at all material times it acted in accordance with the law, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said yesterday that during the hearing into the lawsuit which sought to have it enforce the liability clause in the permits issued to ExxonMobil Guyana for its offshore oil operations, it was still negotiating with the company.
Further, the EPA said in a press release issued yesterday, it had instructed Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) to provide an estimate and declaration to inform the terms and conditions and amount of financial assurance in the guarantee. The estimate given was between $1.5 billion to $2 billion, to be used in the final negotiations on the agreement. On April 27, it added, negotiations concluded on the amount guaranteed, the terms and conditions for renegotiations based on increased risks, and next steps if unfulfilled obligations exceeded the $2 billion guaranteed amounts.