Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 08, 2017 News
…says Trotman should tell country what happened before in U.S.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo is refusing to release the details of a recent meeting he had with ExxonMobil executives.
On Wednesday, Minister of Natural Resources had said at the Local Content Policy Framework engagement at the Marriott Hotel, that the parliamentary opposition is briefed frequently by ExxonMobil, regarding the oil and gas sector.
On this premise, Jagdeo was asked by this newspaper yesterday at a press conference held at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, how frequent those briefings have been and what has been the subject of the engagements.
Jagdeo said that he does not know what Minister Trotman would have meant by ‘frequent briefings.’ He said that after it was discovered by the media that five government Ministers visited Exxon Mobil’s Headquarters in Texas, USA, he received a call from the oil company to brief him about what was told to the Ministers while on the trip.
“After the media discovered this, and then it became a public issue, I got a call from ExxonMobil to say that they wanted to brief me about was told to the Ministers in Texas, and I was thankful for it, and I had that briefing. But I don’t know what Trotman means by frequent briefings.”
Asked further what was conveyed to him by ExxonMobil officials regarding the Texas trip, Jagdeo said, “I can’t tell you that. I can’t give you all the details of the information. Trotman is the Minister, he should be disclosing. Did he tell you what they discussed in Texas? You’re asking me? I was not on the trip. I got a few pages of what took place. He should be telling the country.”
Jagdeo has been calling for greater transparency surrounding the development of the oil and gas sector and every associated activity. He has even criticised some of the apparent secrecy surrounding the details of the oil contract. He has said that the government can disclose the contents of the contract signed with the oil company, so that the nation can know its contents.
However, despite calling for transparency, the Opposition Leader, who represents the interests of thousands of Guyanese, could not disclose the information relayed to him by members of the oil company concerning the Texas trip, an undertaking he said should have been disclosed from the onset.
“They should have disclosed the visit and the circumstances under which they were going and all of the financial issues etc. before they left, and they should have explained why they did not take any technical people.”
The five senior ministers of the government that went on the trip were Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge; Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson and Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin.
The team left for Texas in early August. There were no prior announcements. The cost of the trip was borne by ExxonMobil. However this will be recouped by the company under the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) it signed with the government.
Minister Patterson said at his party’s recent press conference that the trip to Texas was to get an update on the progress being made by ExxonMobil. He said that updates are given by the company every two to three months. He said that at every interval, a team from Guyana will either go to Texas or a team from Texas will come to Guyana.
JAGDEO ADDING MORE DANGER TO GUYANA AND THE REGION
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