Dear Editor,
Another week has passed, EEPGL on behalf of the Stabroek Block Partners and the Government of Guyana’s dance gets even more “curiouser and curiouser”. EEPGL on behalf of the Stabroek Block Partners has joined the fray with their appeal and utterance. They too, are now crying financial woes in their bid to obfuscate what are legal issues. The choices which have been made prima facie point mostly to a lack of due diligence, due care and internal governance of EEPGL and the Stabroek Block Partners.
At the time of the renewal of a previously existing license/permit, did any of the Stabroek partners’ internal legal departments assess the risks associated with the contents of the document being signed? Was any
modelling undertaken? Using the simple management formula: Risk = probability x consequences. Was the value of the probability based on assured “predictable decisions”? Who offered that level of certainty? We are now in the era of the consequences of those choices. Yes, there will be predictable financial fallouts, but this was known before the fact. A choice was made by the signatories to go ahead with the written document as is.
While I was on the public consultation road trip in regions 3 & 4, after the submission of the EIA for the Gas to Energy, I was informed more than once that everything has to pass through the legal department. This week leaves me wondering if this is the standard of due care and attention paid in the safety aspect of this complex industry, as well.
Further, we have been told in the GtE project, which has moved from free to amortized gas, that there is no excess gas from Liza 1 & 2. This begs the question, where is the gas for the GtE being sourced? Did EEPGL, on behalf of the Stabroek Block Partners, know this when asked about volumes of gas in June 2022 through the Community Grievance Mechanism (CGM)? To date neither an acknowledgment nor an answer has been received from CGM. Any gas not used for reinjection, electricity, etc., will need a feasibility study for use outside of the realms of the FPSO as clearly stated in PSA 2016.
Stabroek Block Partners represented by EEPGL and the Government of Guyana are free to create their own rules which only parties therein and thereto know. However, the people of Guyana and the State of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana are governed by written laws and the constitution which is interpreted by the judiciary. The ruling of the judiciary is binding. Let us all be reminded of “ignorantia legis neminem excusat” (Ignorance of the law excuses no one). EEPGL, on behalf of Stabroek Block Partners, have been informed of this jurisprudential maxim through their CGM since May 2022!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Deane Hughes
