Dear Editor,
My last letter sought to establish that under the Presidency of Bharrat Jagdeo, this country experienced nothing but economic disasters. Let me recount a few: GuySuCo’s Skeldon US$200 million expansion; in the preceding years 1994 to 2000, before he assumed the presidency, our economic growth, fueled mainly by President Hoyte’s economic recovery program, averaged 7.1 %, but from 2000 to 2010 after Jagdeo assumed power, the economic growth averaged only 1.6%. There was the 2005 floods, and I am one who holds the view that most of the effects of this disaster was due to mismanagement of the East Demerara Water Conservancy. We kept saying that the residents on the East Coast were telling the government that they were seeing black water in their backyards, but they were saying no, it’s rainfall water. Editor, any farmer in this country will tell you that rainfall water is not black, only conservancy water is black. As a result, the GDP of Guyana suffered badly perhaps more than 50%. I also hold the view that the flooding of Albion in 2001 was due to neglect and mismanagement by those the PPP put to manage this important sector of our economy.
Next, we have the economic repercussion to the NIS in the CLICO fiasco involving the loss of over five billion dollars to the Guyanese tax payers. Peeping Tom of September 2023 can be checked by readers for further disasters which this country endured under Jagdeo. I also wish to point to two letters, Part 1 and Part 2, by Dr. Colin Haynes MPH, MBA published in the Kaieteur News of October 23rd, 2023 and December 8th, 2023, also outlining the numerous failures of the PPP under the Jagdeo administration which includes the fiber optic disaster to Lethem which costed this nation one billion dollars, which was so bad that the Coalition government had to discard it in 2016. The One Laptop fiasco also is included in Dr. Haynes’ letters, among other numerous failures/disasters. To add to this list, I also hold the view that seeking to build a hydro power station at Amaila Falls, a Jagdeo pet project, just like Skeldon, was a huge drain on our national resources, producing nothing. It is therefore unnecessary for me to elaborate further in the matter of Jagdeo’s competence. The abundance of evidence to that fact is there, and clear for all to see.
So now we come to the crux of why I penned the two letters. The situation we find ourselves in today scares me, as since around 2019, numerous international publications have been warning us of the dangers that Exxon is posing to our coast and countries to the north and west of Guyana. Everyone, including our own Dr. Vincent Adams, who was removed from the EPA as soon as the PPP took office in 2000. Completely incompetent people were put in charge of the Natural Resources Ministry and the EPA. One can easily conclude that these actions were taken to allow Exxon to do what they want in this country. And we know why.
Now remembering that Jagdeo does not have a track record of success, in fact he clearly has a track record of disasters, so when the international news agency, the Guardian published the following in 2022, one MUST sit up and take notice: “ExxonMobil’s huge Guyana project faces charges of a disregard for safety from experts who claim the company has failed to adequately prepare for possible disaster.” Exxon has been extracting oil from Liza 1, an ultra-deepwater drilling operation, since 2019 – part of an expansive project spanning more than 6 million acres off the coast of Guyana that includes seventeen additional prospects in the exploration and preparatory phases. [Editor to put 6 million acres into perspective, the entire sugar industry in its heyday totaled only around 120,000 acres]
The article continued: “By 2025, the company expects to produce 800,000 barrels of oil a day, surpassing estimates for its entire oil and natural gas production in the south-western US Permian basin by 100,000 barrels that year. Guyana would then represent Exxon’s largest single source of fossil fuel production anywhere in the world.” But experts claim that Exxon in Guyana appears to be taking advantage of an unprepared government in one of the lowest-income nations in South America, allowing the company to skirt necessary oversight. Worse, they also believe the company’s safety plans are inadequate and dangerous. A top engineer, who studied oil industry disasters, as well as a former government regulator, have leveled criticisms at Exxon. They say workers’ lives, public health and Guyana’s oceans and fisheries – which locals rely on heavily– are all at stake.
The local news, especially Kaieteur News, has been warning us almost daily that not only do world authorities inform us that we made a bad deal in the Stabroek Block, but that exploring in 18,000 feet deep oil wells [like we have here] is fraught with extreme danger. World opinion is also screaming at us not to trust Exxon. We have landed, fortuitously, into the biggest oil find in this hemisphere in a very long time. The world press expresses it this way, “It shows the relative size of the discoveries in Guyana and is by far the largest oil discoveries made in this part of the world,” so suddenly this country was elevated from nothing, to being very, very important and very much in the driver’s seat; Exxon needs us more than we need Exxon, we will not benefit from this windfall unless we put the right people in charge of it. Guyana’s government, working with Exxon, is like a bottom house bat and ball team trying to play the West Indian Test cricket team! So this attitude of the PPP to agree with Exxon to “drill baby, drill” even to the extent that they are seeking to extract 30% more than the safety design of these wells, smacks of an irresponsibility on an astronomical scale. The Government of Guyana’s Oil Czar clearly does not care what the dangers are and this is completely unacceptable.
Sincerely,
Tony Vieira