… Harmon says move in response to calls by citizens

THE contract between US oil-giant, ExxonMobil and the Guyana Government will be made available this month, State Minister Joseph Harmon announced on Thursday.
The contract between the Government of Guyana and the U.S Oil and Gas Exploration

Company, ExxonMobil has been the subject of discussion for months, with various sections of society demanding its release.

On Thursday, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said the Government has heeded the cries of the people. Cabinet, he said, had a “fulsome discussion” on the matter last Tuesday, and it was agreed that the ExxonMobil contract will be made public in December. “That is the contract and all of its terms and conditions,” Minister Harmon said.

Questioned on what influenced Government’s decision, given its earlier stance not to release the agreement, the State Minister said the administration took into consideration the need expressed by citizens for greater inclusiveness and the need for information-sharing in the interest of transparency.

“We listen to the people and we are not deaf to the concerns that are being expressed by various sections of our communities. We believe that it is important that we take the public into our confidence with respect to not only this contract, but other contracts which might affect our dealings with other companies in relation to the national resources and the national patrimony of Guyana,” Minister Harmon explained.

Subsequent to the signing of the oil contract earlier this year, Government had taken a decision that the non-release of the details was in the best interest of Guyanese. The agreement sees Guyana receiving 50 per cent of the profits and two per cent Royalties when oil production commences in 2020. The Working Peoples’ Alliance (WPA), one of the parties in the coalition government, and Transparency Institute Guyana Incorporated (TIGI) are among organisations that have called for public disclosure of the contract between ExxonMobil and the Government.

WPA had said that the decision to withhold the contract was “unwise.”
Early November, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman had said that government had been advised by external advisors and lawyers that it should not release the full contract, noting that a number of extenuating and external issues are being attended to, some of which have foreign affairs, sovereignty and national security implications.

Trotman made the comments even as Petroleum Advisor to the President Dr Jan Mangal said that as an emerging oil and gas country, Guyana needs to place significant emphasis on transparency. However, Trotman said that it was not advisable to release the contract with Exxon at this time, stressing that it would not be to the nation’s benefit.

Trotman said that his government has taken a decision at this point in time not to release the full contract. “We have released quite a few details in fact and if persons are wise enough, and many are, you can put pieces together to get a sense of what is the contract, but there are a number of extenuating and external issues which are being attended to, some of them have foreign affairs implications, some of them have sovereignty implications, some have national security implications and Government has been advised by external advisors and lawyers that at this point in time, that we should not bare all.

It is perhaps not palatable to everyone to accept that, and sometimes advice is not always what you want to hear but it is important that if you have retained experts and others to advise you, that you abide by their advice,” said the Minister of Natural Resources. He believes that in due course, Cabinet will lift what he deems to be an injunction so that “everything will be opened.”

“There is nothing in there that could sink anyone or sink a Government. As a matter of fact, I have said that often times, it is really a continuation of a 1999 contract and it was tweaked in just a few places and so there is nothing to hide.” “It is just for different reasons, some of which I have just explained, we have been advised that at this part in our juncture, as a country, we ought not to lay our contracts bare and one has to understand as well that there is a contract with ExxonMobil, but there are a number of other contracts with other operators that this Government inherited, and so it is not a matter of just releasing one contract,” he continued, noting that government will have to release all contracts eventually.

He said government will have to approach all operators and work out with them when and what they would wish to be exposed, making reference to confidentiality clauses. “It is a matter of working with your partners and operators to ensure that we are at one,” said Trotman.

It was in 2008 that ExxonMobil initiated oil and gas exploration activities here in Guyana, collecting and evaluating substantial 3-D seismic data which has led to the company safely drilling its first exploration well in 2015. Two years after – June 2017 – the Guyanese Government issued the US oil-giant with production licence after receiving among other things, the assurance that oil production would kick in no later than 2020.

For ExxonMobil, drilling continues to yield positive results. Turbot 1, is the latest and fifth new oil discovery in the 6.6million acre Stabroek Block since Liza 1 in May 2015, when the oil giant announced its first significant discovery. The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometres) and located approximately 120 miles (193 kilometres) offshore Guyana. The Liza, Payara, Liza deep, Snoek and Turbot