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Opposition Leader not in favour of getting Guyana a better deal from ExxonMobil

October 31 2019

Source

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will not seek a renegotiation of the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) for the Stabroek Block, if it wins the March 2, 2020 General election, despite its leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, acknowledging that the provisions held therein, are below industry standards.

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo

Gaping loopholes have been pointed out in the contract, which would amount to significant revenue loss to the State, if they are not rectified. As if that wasn’t daunting enough, several provisions have even been alleged to be illegal.
Jagdeo yesterday fielded questions about the prospect of renegotiation at his Church Street office.
The contract allows for its own renegotiation, as long as the contractor grants prior consent. Typically, ExxonMobil wouldn’t give such consent, as it has waxed about the sanctity of contracts. Yet, Energy Advisor Anthony Paul participated in a segment of Guyana’s Oil & You on Kaieteur Radio, where he explained that there are ways in which a company like ExxonMobil can be convinced to sit down and revisit some of the contract’s provisions with the Government.
One of those is the point at which Government embarks on an approval process for their field development plans.
“Guyana is making discovery after discovery. And each oil field has to be developed by the operator. But the company has to submit a plan on how it will go about doing this. This plan requires approval from government. Now that approval process allows the Government of Guyana to pause the clock and say, ‘Let’s think about this and see how we do this in Guyana’s best interest,” Paul had said.
He is adamant that that is one of the mechanisms Guyana can use to claw back value from the deals that have been criticised as lopsided.
In this regard, Paul said that Government has a responsibility to be open to advice, and to lend support to those trying to assist by giving them information they can use.
Pointed to Paul’s statement, Jagdeo still did not budge. He said that a PPP Government would seek renegotiation for any other contract, but that they will not treat the controversial Stabroek PSA the same way. For that agreement, he said that a PPP government would look at rigid auditing of costs and good contract management. He believes that that’s enough to claw back enough value for Guyana.
Meanwhile, First Oil is slated to come up for Christmas, and Guyana is set to receive its first million barrels by February. The losses caused by the gaping loopholes in this controversial contract could rob the Guyanese people of quite a lot of value, since the current Government has also towed the same line as the Opposition; that they will not seek its renegotiation.
However, several small parties have been launched, and one of them – Change Guyana – has indicated that contract renegotiation is a must.
Prime Ministerial Candidate of Change Guyana, Nigel Hinds, is quoted as saying “The ambiguous oil production sharing agreements that have extremely low royalties for Guyana, is a major cause for concern…”
Hinds said that, “contract renegotiation for a fair share of oil benefits to the Guyanese people is absolutely needed.”

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Dave posted:

Your headline is misleading. BJ is just a smart and clever politician.

He eat his words when PPP gets into power and then revert.

His move now is political and business. 

Try again !!!  

Smart and clever politician for fools !!!

Refresh  your memory , if you need more i can provide.

Feeble attempts made by Govt. to defend ExxonMobil contract – Jagdeo

https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...bil-contract-jagdeo/

Django
Django posted:
Dave posted:

Your headline is misleading. BJ is just a smart and clever politician.

He eat his words when PPP gets into power and then revert.

His move now is political and business. 

Try again !!!  

Smart and clever politician for fools !!!

Refresh  your memory , if you need more i can provide.

Feeble attempts made by Govt. to defend ExxonMobil contract – Jagdeo

https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...bil-contract-jagdeo/

So his 40 plus % supporters of ALL races are fools. The world bank officials who offer him a job are fools and the world leaders who recognize his political smarts are fool. 
Even your buddy David Hinds recognizes his political ability as the best in the Caribbean. 

Give a man credit when he deserve it Djanjo. Not nice going after all them Indians politicians..

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Dave posted:
Django posted:
Dave posted:

Your headline is misleading. BJ is just a smart and clever politician.

He eat his words when PPP gets into power and then revert.

His move now is political and business. 

Try again !!!  

Smart and clever politician for fools !!!

Refresh  your memory , if you need more i can provide.

Feeble attempts made by Govt. to defend ExxonMobil contract – Jagdeo

https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...bil-contract-jagdeo/

So his 40 plus % supporters of ALL races are fools.

The world bank officials who offer him a job

are fools and the world leaders who recognize his political smarts are fool. 
Even your buddy David Hinds recognizes his political ability as the best in the Caribbean.

Give a man credit when he deserve it Djanjo.

Not nice going after all them Indians politicians..

Who you fooling ?  the wise know better .

Django
Last edited by Django

The reality is it would take consent from Mobil to renegotiate that PSA which the Coalition screwed up mightily because they didn’t have the requisite insight to do better. That along with the blindness caused by the shiny signing bonus. Jagdeo is on point that while the contract may not be renegotiated, employing proper accounting processes will alleviate further losses.

FM
ksazma posted:

The reality is it would take consent from Mobil to renegotiate that PSA which the Coalition screwed up mightily because they didn’t have the requisite insight to do better. That along with the blindness caused by the shiny signing bonus. Jagdeo is on point that while the contract may not be renegotiated, employing proper accounting processes will alleviate further losses.

Django has no problem with the coalition hiding the bonus until they get caught.

Billy Ram Balgobin
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Where in the article is it stated that BJ would not renegotiate the oil contract the exploration companies? 

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will not seek a renegotiation of the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) for the Stabroek Block, if it wins the March 2, 2020 General election, despite its leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, acknowledging that the provisions held therein, are below industry standards.

First paragraph.

Django
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:
ksazma posted:

The reality is it would take consent from Mobil to renegotiate that PSA which the Coalition screwed up mightily because they didn’t have the requisite insight to do better. That along with the blindness caused by the shiny signing bonus. Jagdeo is on point that while the contract may not be renegotiated, employing proper accounting processes will alleviate further losses.

Django has no problem with the coalition hiding the bonus until they get caught.

Well the money in BOG  Account, with a few signatures accepting receipt .The government wants to keep it secret for paying legal fees  for the case of Venezuela claim to Essequibo at the World Court. The gov't further claimed withdrawals to pay legal fees will be declared in parliament.

Was it the correct thing to do ? that's the big question.

Django
Django posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Where in the article is it stated that BJ would not renegotiate the oil contract the exploration companies? 

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will not seek a renegotiation of the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) for the Stabroek Block, if it wins the March 2, 2020 General election, despite its leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, acknowledging that the provisions held therein, are below industry standards.

First paragraph.

You don’t get it yet eh . 

Most businessmen knew BJ was gambling with the US when he say that. Read between the lines .

He listen to someone who whisper in his ears . 

FM
Django posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:
ksazma posted:

The reality is it would take consent from Mobil to renegotiate that PSA which the Coalition screwed up mightily because they didn’t have the requisite insight to do better. That along with the blindness caused by the shiny signing bonus. Jagdeo is on point that while the contract may not be renegotiated, employing proper accounting processes will alleviate further losses.

Django has no problem with the coalition hiding the bonus until they get caught.

Well the money in BOG  Account, with a few signatures accepting receipt .The government wants to keep it secret for paying legal fees  for the case of Venezuela claim to Essequibo at the World Court. The gov't further claimed withdrawals to pay legal fees will be declared in parliament.

Was it the correct thing to do ? that's the big question.

Which is correct Djanjo 

US$18M signing bonus transferred to Consolidated Fund


By Kiana Wilburg

The Government of Guyana has finally transferred the US$18M signing bonus it had received from ExxonMobil to the Consolidated Fund along with an extra US$480,000.

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan

The money was initially being kept in an account at Central Bank but was closed since January 2019.
Finance Minister, Winston Jordan confirmed the close of the account yesterday afternoon. The economist said that this is without prejudice to the pending High Court ruling on whether keeping the signing bonus outside of the Consolidated Fund is lawful.
Documents seen by Kaieteur News last night reveal that when the government received the bonus from Exxon, it was placed into an account at Central Bank which subsequently opened a special account to manage proceeds from investments.
In November 2016, US$15.8M was transferred to the investment account and expended to purchase overseas bonds. The balance of US$2.176M stayed in a cash account.
This newspaper understands that the Government earned an interest of US$498,775 from its investments during the period November 2016 to December 2018. The interest on the cash account totaled US$2,889.
On December 28, 2018, this newspaper understands that Bank of Guyana received instructions from the Finance Ministry to transfer US$3.78M from the cash account to the Consolidated Fund. This left the cash account with a balance of US$112,480.
Furthermore, in January last, the value of government’s investments appreciated to US$14.545 M from US$414.477M.
The Bank subsequently received instructions to transfer all moneys being held to the Consolidated Fund. The total transfer was US$18.480M.
The transfer occurred before the High Court ruled that the No-Confidence Motion was validly passed.
GOVT. VS CRITICS
Several anticorruption advocates such as Chartered Accountant, Christopher Ram and Transparency International Guyana Inc. have been extremely critical of the government for keeping the money out of the Consolidated Fund and in a special account at Central Bank.
But Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, had insisted that the decision taken by Government to use a special account is one that was above board and is representative of its commitment to transparency and accountability.
Jordan had told Kaieteur News that the bonus is for a specific purpose; to help in the matter of protecting Guyana’s territorial integrity.
The Finance Minister had emphasized, too, that from the time the money was received it was placed into the system immediately and was always managed by Bank of Guyana.

FM

US$15M from oil bonus set aside for border case, says Greenidge

0

Cabinet has given its approval for US$15 million from the controversial signing bonus that Government received from U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil to be used towards the border controversy case with Venezuela.

This disclosure was made by Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge on Tuesday during a press conference at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Georgetown office.

Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge on Tuesday during a press conference at his Ministry

While Government had initially received US$18 million, Greendige said it was decided by Government that part of that bonus could be used for the legal challenge, even though the current sum may be inadequate.

Asked by this media entity whether any of the monies set aside for the matter has been spent, the Minister said none of it was expended.

In March of this year, while Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman did not confirm nor deny allegations that the signing bonus might have been transferred from a private account at the Central Bank, or spent, the Minister did reiterate that the monies were put aside to deal with a specific matter.

His comments were solicited after Guyanese economist Ramon Gaskin speculated that the oil bonus was “spent unlawfully and without the approval of the National Assembly.”

“The Bank of Guyana has published the list of 128 Government Account Balances at the end of January 2018 in excess of 36 billion Guyana dollars.” Gaskin said that “the US$18M ‘Signing Bonus’ received by Guyana and allegedly placed in the account is not listed”.

He had called on Government to provide an explanation.

Commenting on the issue, Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo had said that the manner in which the Government dealt with this matter, since the money was kept secret until it was brought to the public’s attention through the media, was upsetting.

“I think the way they treated the US$18 million knowing that it was illegally kept out of all Government accounts, so it could not be audited, once it is not formally in Government accounts. Then the Auditor General would not be able to audit it. That it was parked in that way, to be stolen. So while parts of it may be used to pay a lawyer et cetera, we would have seen inflated bills and a whole range of other issues…expenditure that would have used up all the money and it would have gone into peoples accounts” Jagdeo had explained.

FM

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