Marcelle Thomas

The 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA)  with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), gave the company generous terms of relinquishment for the massive Stabroek Block that would see it holding on to key acreages until 2023 and costing the country billions of dollars, according to attorney-at-law and civil society activist Christopher Ram.

United States Ambassador to Guyana Sarah-Ann Lynch yesterday defended Washington’s move to impose sanctions against persons here acting to derail democracy, while saying that it is driven by the concern that it and over 130 other nations share about the repeated efforts to undermine the will of the people.  “We [the United States] are friends of Guyana.

-visas to be pulled from those undermining democracy here The United States government yesterday called on the David Granger-led APNU+AFC administration to step aside in recognition of the results of the March 2nd general elections and it also announced visa restrictions for persons “undermining democracy” and those complicit in same.

ExxonMobil and two of its subcontractors were fined three times this year for minor spills of hydraulic fluid in the offshore Stabroek Block and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it wanted to underscore zero tolerance for lax maintenance and procedures in light of the large risk that such operations can pose to the environment and safety.

Yesterday’s Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling has been welcomed by Presidential Candidate Irfaan Ali and all of the small parties which contested the March 2 General and Regional Elections, and after four months of waiting they hope it will pave the way for a swift declaration and swearing in of Ali.

ExxonMobil should prove it is using efficient gas flaring technology in oil operations offshore and it is also imperative that both Guyana and the company have stringent measures in place to monitor for leaks from its equipment as such emissions have stronger greenhouse effects, physicist and energy researcher Dr Robert Kleinberg says.

-flaring equal to destroying 6.2 hectares of forest per day continuing Exxon’s flaring of over nine billion cubic feet of natural gas since oil production began in December is equivalent to the loss of 4,642 hectares of forest, which would be valued at US$24 million based on the carbon price under Guyana’s forest protection pact with Norway, says conservationist Dr David Singh.

With the government’s move to transfer at least 10 properties to private companies earlier this month coming under scrutiny, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) yesterday said that it was simply finalising the sale of some of GuySuCo’s assets to help assist the cash-strapped corporation.

With the election recount results showing a loss for the incumbent APNU+AFC, the owner of the Liliendaal property where a billion-dollar infectious diseases hospital has been erected and the contractors involved could face a long wait for payment and searing questions as the winner of the polls, the PPP/C has raised a flurry of accountability issues about the project.

While identifying Clonbrook, Mahaica on the East Coast of Demerara, as the best location for bringing natural gas to shore for domestic use, a 2017 desk study done for the APNU+AFC government put the cost of doing this at US$304 million at least.

Production at Exxon-Mobil’s Liza-1 project in the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana, has plummeted from 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) to now between 25,000 and 30,000 bpd as compressor problems continue and the company would not increase flaring above about 15 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Dr Vincent Adams has said.

Persons wishing to fly out of Guyana may have to wait until late December or early 2021 to do so as this country will not open up to commercial air travel until it is assured that rigid COVID-19 prevention measures are in place and cases here have reduced significantly, says Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Director (Ret’d) Colonel Egbert Field.

Opposition parties yesterday sharply criticised GECOM Chair Claudette Singh for writing the Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) on May 22nd on allegations made by APNU+AFC about illicit voting at the March 2nd general elections, a task they said was beyond her remit and full with sinister implications.

As ExxonMobil yesterday continued to play up its Guyana investments at its virtual Annual Meeting of shareholders, global environmental and human rights organisation, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) called on the company to heed environmental pollution warnings and immediately stop flaring gas here.

ExxonMobil’s flaring of over nine billion  cubic feet of natural gas could have been avoided had a proposed  gas-to-shore pipeline project been implemented but it was stalled because a plan to determine the best location was rejected by government officials as some wanted to handpick a site, former Petroleum Advisor Jan Mangal says.

Even with favourable markets, large scale mining of minerals here has suffered major setbacks due mainly to health restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and this has left hundreds without work.

After glitches during production startup saw flaring of over 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas,  ExxonMobil has assured that it will from this week begin transitioning to using the gas for well injection purposes, Head of the Environment Protection Agency Dr Vincent Adams says.

Government’s billion-dollar expenditure on the decrepit Ocean View Hotel to construct a COVID-19 hospital has attracted the scrutiny of Auditor General Deodat Sharma and a local transparency group even as the current owner Jacob Rambarran maintains silence on the terms of the controversial deal.

While the mining fraternity is pleased with the current high world market price for gold, some miners say that due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions and other factors they have been unable to maximise production.

The closure of this country’s international airports as part of the measures to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has severely affected Ogle Airport Inc.