The Road To First Oil

Part 79   Introduction The word is now out that long before the earlier planned date of First Oil, Guyana will witness the historic pouring of the first barrel of crude oil catapulting the small country of barely three-quarter million persons onto the world’s petroleum stage.

Introduction Mr. John Hess CEO of Hess Corporation disclosed that his company paid US$30 million for a 30% stake in ExxonMobil’s Stabroek Block.

Today’s column highlights a few issues raised by Mr. Raphael Trotman, then Minister of Natural Resources who appeared before the Natural Resources Committee of the National Assembly on May 18, 2018.

 Introduction For some time, questions have been raised about the royalty provisions in the 2016 Agreement under which Trotman/Greenidge/Granger partially signed away the birthright of all Guyanese past, present and future.

Introduction Two weeks ago in Toronto, Canada, the organisation Caribbean Council of the Americas (CCA) in a public advertisement invited the Guyanese community and “other interested parties in the greater Toronto area to learn about all and gas exploration and development in Guyana.”

Part 74 Introduction A couple of weeks ago, Column 73 examined a statement by Dr.

Introduction It has been a week of headlines in the petroleum sector.

Introduction Column 71 published last week included a summary table of the Statements of Financial Position (the Balance Sheet) of the three oil companies which will lead Guyana to First Oil projected to take place during the first quarter of 2020.

Introduction Column 71 published last week included a summary table of the Statements of Financial Position (the Balance Sheet) of the three oil companies which will lead Guyana to First Oil projected to take place during the first quarter of 2020.

IntroductionToday’s column summarises some of the principal information extracted from the auditedfinancial statements of the three Contractors to the Petroleum Agreement signed on June 27, 2016.

Introduction Following up on last week’s column we have set out below a Table summarizing the Profit and Loss Statement of Mid-Atlantic for each of the years 2013 (part-year) to 2018 extracted from the company’s audited financial statements lodged with the Commercial Registry, a statutory obligation under the Companies Act.

Introduction The Public and Government Affairs Advisor of ExxonMobil Ms. Janelle Persaud has disclosed to the press that its subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), has applied for its Petroleum Prospecting Licence for the Canje Block to be renewed.

Introduction This column has had an extensive rest – more than half the year while more and more of the defects and inadequacies of the infamous “ExxonMobil” Petroleum Agreement (PA) have been exposed.

Introduction “You couldn’t do the math”, said Ambassador Perry Holloway in his interview with reporters published in Stabroek News last Tuesday December 9, 2018 as he exhorted us Guyanese to educate ourselves about the fortune coming our way from ExxonMobil’s oil.

Part 66   Introduction Mr. David Patterson, Minister of Public Infrastructure, offered a commendably prompt but strange response to last week’s column by way of his December 8 letter to the editor “The 2019 budgetary allocation has nothing to do with natural gas”.

Introduction Today’s column carries out a commitment I made in a letter earlier this week responding to a statement by Mr.

Introduction Figures contained in the 2017 financial statements of Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited indicate that the three-party set up of Esso, Hess and CNOOC Nexen will spend well over five hundred billion dollars ($500,000,000,000) up to December 2019.

Introduction It has been nearly a month since the last column appeared on October 19 under the title Complex for the White Man, Disdain for Locals.

Introduction During the recently-concluded United Nations General Assembly in New York, USA, the Guyana Delegation led by Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge facilitated a meeting between the Governor of the Bank of Guyana and representatives of Merrill Lynch, the investment arm of the Bank of America Corporation which had expressed an interest in Guyana’s proposed Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Introduction In an advertisement appearing in the national media yesterday, the Ministry of Natural Resources, on its own behalf and that of the Government of Guyana, invited expressions of interest by Consultants desirous of providing services to the Project Execution Unit, presumably of the Ministry, to “conduct an audit of the Recoverable Contract Costs as called for in the signed Production Sharing Contract(s).”