…says report seeking to influence upcoming elections
…Guyanese are assured of earning tens of billions of United States dollars in the years ahead

THE Government of Guyana has rejected a recent report by international investigative company, Global Witness, as “baseless”, “sensationalist” and “agenda-driven.”

Recently, the company purported in a report titled ‘Signed Away,’ that Guyana stands to lose an entitled $55 billion dollars from a bad oil deal with U.S. Oil giant, ExxonMobil. The organisation laid the claim that Guyana presented “feeble negotiation terms” and the “aggressive company” [ExxonMobil] pounced on this when it “negotiated an exploitative deal.”
The organisation theorised that Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman who signed the Exxon deal in June 2016, may have been compromised, even though they admitted that they had no proof of this.

“The report is sensationalist, agenda-driven and extraordinarily speculative. Global Witness presented absolutely no evidence of corruption or malpractice on the part of the government or its officials,” the government stated in Tuesday’s release. “The Government of Guyana views the report as a cunning and calculated attack on a sovereign state with a duly elected government mere weeks before an election. This timing cannot be seen as a coincidence and it appears as though it is seeking to influence the electoral outcome.”

IT’S GUYANA’S RESOURCE
The government also condemned the author of the report for statements made that the country “should allow no additional drilling in the Stabroek licence” and “should also cancel its nine other allocated licences and not award any new licences.”

It stated: “This is arbitrary and utterly absurd. On what basis does Global Witness seek to impose its proposition that the people of Guyana must not benefit from our natural resources as the peoples of other countries have done freely for millennia?”

Earlier on Tuesday, international media agency Forbes Magazine, had pointed out that the Global Witness’ report may be ill-motive as the investigation company is traditionally focused on “halting natural resource extraction. In the end, just a few hours of analysis reveals the Global Witness report for what it is: an ideologically motivated attack piece aimed at some of the biggest players in the oil and gas industry. Which, given the group’s history, comes as no surprise at all,” Forbes Magazine stated.

Meanwhile, the widely respected oil and gas analytical firm Rystad Energy pointed out: “In the current fiscal regime, the government collects its share through a 2 per cent royalty and a 50 per cent profit oil levy. Rystad Energy estimates that this will give the government 60 per cent of the profit from the various projects (government take). The average government take of 60 per cent in Guyana is indeed favourable when compared to other large offshore producers. For countries that only recently opened up for [Exploration and Production] activities – such as the Falkland Islands, Israel, Mozambique and Mauritania – the government take is in the range of 50 per cent to 65 per cent.”

A FAIR AGREEMENT
Reiterating where the country stands, the government assured that it entered into a fair agreement for the people of Guyana. Apart from 50 per cent profit oil and 2 per cent royalty, the government will also receive withholding taxes and a US$18,000,000 signing bonus, while over 1,900 persons are directly employed in oil and gas sector to date; there has been over US$300M in foreign direct investment to date and over 700 service providers to date.

“The government maintains its position that there were geo-political and national security imperatives which could not be ignored. The report deliberately seeks to trivialise the national security and sovereignty of Guyana,” the release stated. “Further, Global Witness completely ignores the analyses and reviews done by credible companies such as the Norway-based Rystad Energy and experts including Sir Paul Collier of the prestigious Oxford University.”

AN ATTACK ON GOV’T
The government has also taken great offence that Global Witness has “maliciously attempted to discredit officials of the government,” including Trotman, who was part of a Cabinet- approved Guyana delegation, on an official visit to Houston. Though making its claims throughout the article —which has now been widely shared — the investigative agency also admitted: “Global Witness is not suggesting that Trotman’s Texas trip violates U.S. or Guyanese anti-corruption laws.”

The government concluded that Global Witness therefore contradicts itself in its own report, being unable to establish any corruption or malpractice whatsoever on the part of government or any of its officials. “Not having been able to establish any corruption, Global Witness then pivots and engaged in a flight of fancy. The figure of $55B is random, arbitrary and highly speculative. In fact, the people of Guyana are assured of earning tens of billions of United States dollars in the years ahead and would have unprecedented and bountiful amounts for investment in their wages and salaries, pensions, education, health care, security, infrastructure, sea defence, agriculture, hinterland development and for future generations through Guyana’s already established Natural Resource Fund,” the release acknowledged.

It reminded citizens that this is not only the government’s position, as ogranisations such as Nasdaq and other regional and multinational agencies such as the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), have noted that Guyana is the fastest-growing economy in the world and expected to experience vast wealth as a result of its oil and gas agreement.

The agencies have also commended the government for its prudent fiscal management of the resource. The release affirmed: “The Government of Guyana acted decisively in allowing for first oil to have been celebrated in less than five years, an unprecedented and historic achievement. All Guyanese are imbued with a deep sense of pride and patriotism that they are now citizens of an oil-producing nation and are urged not to allow anyone to steal their joy and good fortune.”