Dear Editor,
It now appears that routine disclosures about the nation’s oil wealth have turned into yanking teeth and pulling fingernails. No anesthetic is administered. First, there is the continued heavy weather experienced by Exxon, with possibly covert and artful backing from Bharrat Jagdeo, on the release of billions in expenses claimed by the company. Second, I skip past the clamors feared by Exxon and the chief policymaker on other routine areas that are integral to oil operations. Audit reports, and project studies, come to mind, with all now held behind iron bars and grills. Fort Knox, it is. For third, there is this new one generating much uneasiness in Exxon’s world, and in Vice President Jagdeo’s head: evidence of the US$2B parent guarantee. Most likely, the majority of Guyanese were comforted: there is no full parent company guarantee, but there is the consolation prize. That is, the US$2B protection that originated with Bharrat Jagdeo. US$2B should not be such a big deal for Exxon. How could it be, when it is escaping the full sweep of a full parent company guarantee in the event of a disastrous oil spill?
The US$2B parent guarantee amount may seem puny to some Guyanese, but it just may represent what is feasible, manageable, and affordable; the essence of what is customary in the international petroleum industry. Yet, there is this difficulty in delivering the proof that the court ordered, and what Guyanese thought was already in place. To quote Winston Churchill, the evidence of the US$2B guarantee from Exxon has become a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Does everything of substance with this oil wealth degrade to a hide and seek game? Or catch me, if you can? The problem is that Guyanese are always coming up emptyhanded, with nothing but air to cling to, futilely. Enter Bharrat Jagdeo. When citizens thought that he was going to mount a rescue operation with this absentee US$2B guarantee from Exxon, he only added more slipperiness and darkness to the matter.
In a private capacity, he would deliver the documents, but as a government figure he has no say in the decisions of the Environmental Protection Agency. Say that again, sir? This is purity and integrity in governance taken to unprecedented elevations locally. I am encountering high-level turbulence in coping with this new peculiarity and curiosity coming from my Vice-Presidential brother (New Year, same old standard that serves well). Why is he even referring to the EPA on this issue? I take the liberty of directing his attention to the 2016 oil contract. Check under “Rights to Assets and Insurance” and the revelations are in black and white on pages 51 and 52. It would be shocking, indeed, if the Vice President and Guyana’s leading oil authority has not gone before to where I am pointing him, did not know of its existence. Whether he does or not, producing the evidence of this US$2B guarantee should not be the source of such leadership tortures.
These verbal gymnastics covering different personal, official, and institutional standards on the document memorializing the Exxon guarantee just should not be. Frankly, I find the patchy phrases of Bharrat on an issue that should be the simplest to make good on reeking of the amateurish. When this guarantee issue has to travel from citizens to court (repeatedly) and court to pivotal national institutional, and from there to the cloak of legal cover (no requirement), then this is the finest exhibition of prevarication seen to date. If there is this cast-iron objection, this redline drawn in the sand, on producing a US$2 billion document, then what is available, what could be cleared, for the enlightenment of Guyanese on the wealth that is theirs? Guyanese should not be having this conversation. This oil wealth should not to be sacrificed on the altar of political and foreign corporate expediency.
If there is nothing to hide, then why is there this behaviour of Exxon and the EPA, as if there is something to hide? Guyanese need their elected leaders to level with them, tell them a straight story. Not prevaricate and complicate matters for seemingly inexplicable motives. Not plunge knife after knife into their backs. The misgiving that I had tabled before returns with renewed strength: is there anything available to produce by way of a US$2B parent guarantee by anybody? Exxon or the EPA? Exxon could earn some points as an honest partner if it were to furnish what it really has. Guyana’s EPA would gain some much-needed credibility if and when it stops playing these games that fails to convince any citizen. So also must brother Jagdeo.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
