…Greenidge cautions citizens

FOREIGN Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge has warned citizens against “beating up” on US oil company, ExxonMobil owing to its past experiences in other countries. He said it was the responsibility of the administration to ensure that the company pays its share of the contract.

Speaking during an outreach to Region Six on Sunday, Minister Greenidge noted that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure monies collected from companies, including oil companies, is spent to develop its people. “It is our job to ensure that our Inland Revenue department is competently manned so as to analyse their books and impose the taxes they are supposed to pay. You can’t start up by beating up the company when in fact the company hasn’t been due to pay taxes and refused to pay taxes.” Greenidge said “what that should do is to put you on caution, on alert not to cause you to cuss them up,” Minister Greenidge said.

He cautioned residents not to “believe these jokers that will have you cuss out a company that has found oil and develop that oil”. ExxonMobil in partnership with CNOOC Nexen and Hess Corporation put Guyana on the map with its discovery of oil in 2015.

Currently, the company is developing the Liza Field located in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana for oil production in 2020. The Stabroek block is now estimated to contain between 2.25 – 2.75 billion oil-equivalent barrels. Other oil companies have expressed interest in oil exploration offshore Guyana since Exxon’s de-risking of the Guyana offshore basin.

The government is currently establishing policies and legislation to effectively govern the oil and gas industry. In its commitment to accountability and transparency in the industry, the government has joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and has recently committed to making its contract with Exxon public.

BOUNDARY MARKER
Meanwhile, Greenidge also told residents that the recent exercise to identify the markers demarcating the boundary between Guyana and Venezuela is important, as Guyana gears up to litigate the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award. Greenidge who is also Second Vice President explained that Guyana is awaiting the final decision from the United Nations Secretary-General, now that another year of the Good Offices Process is winding down. The SG’s Personal Representative, Norwegian Diplomat, Dag Nylander, is to submit his report on the meetings he facilitated between the two countries to the SG.

The engagements between the UN representative and the South American neighbours were concluded in November. According to Minister Greenidge, there have only been three meetings between the two countries in October since Nylander’s appointment earlier this year. Minister Greenidge said Guyana has intensified its bilateral activism with other countries to ensure the SG honours his obligations which is “he must refer the matter to the court at the end of 2017, unless there is significant progress in resolving the matter”.

Guyana has maintained that Venezuela’s claim on the nullity of the Award is a legal matter that must be resolved in the court. In 1962, Venezuela refused to recognise the 1899 Arbitral Award saying it was null and void. “If they are saying a decision is null and void it is only a law court that can decide on the meaning of nullity…not whether Venezuela should get a piece more land,” Minister Greenidge said.

The 1966 Geneva Agreement identified the UN SG to resolve the matter using a menu of measures under Article 33 of the UN agreement. “We call on the Secretary-General to look at his mandate and to refer the matter to the highest court in the world, the ICJ,” the Minister said. The more than 50-year-old controversy has since grown to include Venezuela’s claims to two-thirds of Guyana, Essequibo, and almost all of Guyana’s maritime Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The identification of the boundary marker by the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and Guyana Police Force (GPF) is an annual exercise. “It is important to maintain the markers because you don’t want people moving them and shifting them into Guyana, so that Venezuela can claim even more territory that is currently the case,” Minister Greenidge said. The Minster stressed that it is important for all Guyanese to take an interest in the resolution of this controversy. “Between the two neighbours (Venezuela and Suriname) if they get their wishes there will be no Guyana and you must understand that,” Minister Greenidge said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is expected to intensify its sensitisation of Guyanese on the Guyana Venezuela controversy. The outreach is to supplement booklets that were created to educate Guyanese on the matter. (DPI)