Dear Mr. Editor,
CHARTERED Accountant and new oil-and-gas expert Christopher Ram is quoted in the Kaieteur News of Sunday, February 9, 2020, as saying;  “Nothing…shows Exxon’s bad faith more than its announcement of a major find, one day after the Granger Government awarded them a tainted Petroleum Agreement made possible by the infamous Bridging Deed. It is either trickery or conspiracy.” Here, Ram is referring to the renegotiated petroleum agreement of 2016.

The fact that the first discovery was made in May 2015 and the second discovery was announced in January 2017 begs the question: which major discovery is Ram referring to in 2016? Further, Ram says the announcement of this discovery came one day after the government awarded Exxon the contract, implying that the company concealed the results to get the best deal for itself.

So, what are the facts? Liza 1 was Exxon’s first discovery announced on May 20, 2015, described by the company as a ‘significant discovery.’ Liza 2 was one in a series of wells the company then drilled to confirm what it had initially found. The company then announced in June 2016 that the Liza 2 well confirmed the previously announced ‘significant discovery’ in 2015. The volume was pegged at 800 million to 1.4 billion barrels of oil.

Further, if Ram is suggesting that the government would not have been aware of the Liza 2 results just days before it was officially announced, he is surely a novice with no working knowledge of how these things work.

It would seem a bit disrespectful for any company to be making major announcements about a country’s resources without first telling the government of the day. In fact, it is almost a certainty that this is mandatory.

Ram would have us believe that just mere hours before Exxon announced the appraisal drilling results for Liza 2, Trotman was clueless. The government itself has issued several statements outlining why it felt going forward with the contract at the time was in Guyana’s best interest. It never once indicated that it did not know about the Liza 2 results.

I am not sure whether to laugh or cry when I read these articles with some of the most absurd claims and suggestions. I am just saddened that the media now apparently sees fact-checking as a bridge too far.
Tired and fed up.
Regards,
Trevor Reid