PEOPLE’S Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, has blasted the opposition for changing its tune and contradicting itself on matters of national interest.

During a recent press conference at the party’s Robb Street headquarters, Dr Jagdeo highlighted two news articles which showed the opposition holding different positions.

The articles referenced a press statement issued on March 16 by the Office of the Leader of the Opposition (OLO).

The press statement read: “We, in the opposition, support the call for the nation to be updated on the amount of discovered oil reserves,” and also put forth the accusation that the Guyanese people are being left in the “dark.”

However, although the opposition called for the publishing of an updated report of the reserves, this stance was abandoned as the statement then gave reasons as to why the government should not “rush” to approve oil projects.

As they reaffirmed their previous position held in their press conference on February 12, the statement posited: “The Guyanese public should take note of recent statements by VP Jagdeo and President of Exxon Guyana Alistair Routledge, to the effect that Guyana’s share of oil revenues is projected to increase substantially in the next few years as the company recoups more and more of its investments… It [gov’t] must therefore not rush to approve new oil projects in the Stabroek Block…”

In a scathing response, the PPP General Secretary used this example to show how the opposition lacks coherence.

“On one hand you’re [opposition] complaining about being kept in the dark so we prove more resources now, but you don’t want to approve the projects,” Dr Jagdeo said.
Taking a step further to poke holes in their logic, he stated: “So we know about all the reserves we have now, but the only way this country could make money is if we actually convert the resources into reserves and then into production.”

He added: “Knowing reserves without converting it into production is nonsense, because we already know we have 11 billion barrels of reserves and it will keep growing.”

He said that the focus is not to push the oil companies to do more appraisal wells, but instead converting the reserves into production.

The PPP General Secretary also stated that the government receives a quarterly report on the nation’s oil reserves.

As he continued to point out, the opposition’s lack of coherence, he said: “This is what I’m telling you about, no coherence in thinking, in strategy, in policy. They go on a weekly basis to the press conference and they wing it.”

Unlike the opposition, Dr Jagdeo said he is buttressed by policy-making experience as he held the positions of former Minister of Finance and former President of Guyana.

Adding to this, he highlighted several documents outlining the PPP government’s policies.

Recently, opposition operatives have been pushing the narrative that the estimated 11 billion barrels of oil that Guyana has is not true and have been hastily calling for an update.

It should be noted that exploration activities pursuant to the Stabroek Block’s 1999 Agreement, actually commenced 15 years prior to the “announcement” of a commercial discovery in 2015.

Similarly, CGX Guyana had announced the discovery of hydrocarbons at the Wei-1well in the Corentyne block in November 2023. However, the company is still appraising that discovery for commercial viability, while bearing in mind that exploration was ongoing years prior to that announcement.
In one of ExxonMobil’s press conferences, they had emphasised that they are more focused on the development of projects that will move into production over the medium term. As such, the upward revision of the estimates is not a priority at this stage.