Following his attendance at the quite remarkable confabulation on December 14 in St Vincent and the Grenadines that featured Presidents Ali and Maduro, Attorney General Anil Nandlall on Saturday sounded a note of caution about what he termed “reckless speculative pontification” and “loose public statements” on the Venezuela controversy, arguing that such had harmed this country in its border issue with its neighbour to the east, Suriname.
He then went on to apply that same need for discretion as it relates to ExxonMobil, stating that at the Thursday meeting, President Maduro was armed with several volumes of documents.
“Many of those were compilations of public statements made on this matter, critical commentaries on the operations of Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) and the several legal proceedings filed in relation thereto – all extracted from our local media.
“These are materials which Venezuela is using to bolster their narrative. Whatever weight is placed upon them, they certainly do not and will not assist Guyana in any form or fashion.
“In the future, therefore, those who wish to travel this road by making such statements, or taking such actions, must now become alive to this consequential reality”, the Attorney General said.
In an interview with this newspaper later on Saturday, Mr Nandlall was more specific.
He said Mr Maduro had documents, containing information on the 2016 ExxonMobil Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) and the various reports by citizens claiming that ExxonMobil is robbing Guyana of its oil and gas resources.
“We noticed that Maduro had articles and reports on how Exxon is ripping Guyana off in light of the PSA and other loose statements that were reported in the public domain on how citizens were accusing the government of allowing Exxon to enter an agreement that would disenfranchise the country of its resources, it was that kind of fallacious and misleading information he had at the meeting”, he said.
The Attorney General added that “Maduro also had critical commentaries on the operations of Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) and the several legal proceedings filed in relation thereto – all extracted from the local media”.
Against this background, Mr Nandlall said the Venezuelan President is using the negative reports about Exxon in Guyana to solidify his arguments that the oil company must exit Essequibo as it “clearly” has no good intentions for oil production.
The AG asserted that while Maduro is using this opportunity to “build a case” against the US oil company amid these threats for it to cease all operations in Essequibo within the stipulated time frame, the Venezuelan Leader’s plans will never work.
“What he was saying at the meeting (was) there are citizens who are not in favour of ExxonMobil due to their track record of exploiting other developing countries in the oil and gas sector, Maduro should not have any business with Exxon’s operations in the county of Essequibo because his plans will never work”, Mr Nandlall added.
It is indeed important that media here, commentators and other stakeholders refrain from making statements or providing any basis for undermining Guyana’s case in the border controversy and where such occur the authors should be immediately disabused of their ignorance and schooled on what is permissible.
However, it is an entirely different matter to conflate legitimate criticism here of ExxonMobil’s activities with the perspective that this will somehow aid Mr Maduro’s case and weaken Guyana’s position on the frontier and related matters. Mr Nandlall himself recognises that Mr Maduro should not have any business with Exxon’s operations and he mentioned Essequibo although the oil production is occurring in the Atlantic off the Demerara Coast.
President Maduro has no business mentioning ExxonMobil’s operations here and he should be given short shrift on the matter and no government official here should be seen to be giving even tacit recognition of this. Oil operations in Guyana’s waters have no bearing on the border controversy case before the International Court of Justice and that’s where this government should be laser-focused.
It is worthy of note that even in its domestic politics, Mr Maduro is using ExxonMobil as a bogeyman. According to the December 7th Houston Chronicle, the Venezuelan government has opened an investigation into connections between the company and Mr Maduro’s political opponent, Maria Corina Machado. Attorney General Tarek William Saab said this on Wednesday during a press conference. Venezuela also claims that Exxon was behind an international money laundering scheme that kept Guyanese land from Venezuelans.
Exxon denied the claims Thursday, saying in a statement, “This is a ridiculous and baseless claim and entirely inconsistent with how we do business.”
There is also the continuing legal case over Venezuela’s expropriation of Exxon’s operations in 2007 and ongoing compensation battles. So there is a history here with which Mr Maduro is trying to stir further trouble across the frontier.
And just so that there is no misunderstanding of it, ExxonMobil is indeed engaged in rapacious exploitation of Guyana’s oil with the full acquiescence of this government and its predecessor. The longer that that continues the more stakeholders in this country will question the judgement of this government as it relates to stewardship of the country’s resources. The pressure that has been brought to bear over the unjust Production Sharing Agreement of 2016 should be elevated until both the government and ExxonMobil realise that they have to return to the negotiating table in the interest of their shareholders and stakeholders. That was never the business of Mr Maduro and Caracas and that’s the way it should remain.
