Dear Editor,
REFERENCE is made to an erroneous article published in the Kaieteur News edition of May 22, 2023, with the caption “huge discrepancy exists between Exxon, Govt., 2022 local content estimates.”

The article cited the government estimates as US$700 million for 2022 and ExxonMobil’s (XOM) estimate as US$400 million for 2022.
However, there is no huge discrepancy as reported. A simple clarification should have been sought from the Local Content Secretariat to understand the reason for the variance, in keeping with good journalism practices. But unfortunately, this was not done.

The estimate reported by XOM will not correspond with the government’s data because XOM only reports on local content spent on procurement for goods and services, including those reported by its tier one contractors.

In accordance with the Local Content Act, local content includes procurement of goods and services, employment of Guyanese workforce and training.

These aspects on employment and training are not captured in the XOM estimate. Nonetheless, the Local Content Secretariat is mandated to measure all forms of local content spend as per the
Local Content Act.

The Local Secretariat’s or the government’s estimates also include the local content spend by other operators and not only XOM, such as CGX and others.

I hope this brings the necessary clarification and that the media house will now issue the necessary apology and correction in keeping with the principles of good journalism practices.

Yours sincerely,
Joel Bhagwandin
Public Policy and
Financial Analyst