VP tells oil companies to rent, not purchase local properties

Feb 16, 2021 News

VP Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo

Kaieteur News – Instead of purchasing Guyanese property, Vice President (VP), Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, wants oil companies operating in Guyana to rent them.
During yesterday’s Draft Local Content Policy Consultation at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC), Dr. Jagdeo specifically told President of ExxonMobil Guyana ,“We want you to rent from Guyanese, not build a headquarter. That’s the sort of thing that we are more concerned about.”
At the time, the VP was referring to the 10 acres of land at Ogle that ExxonMobil purchased to construct their headquarters, during the leadership of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) administration.
What is notable, however, is that Exxon would be able to recover every cent of that money if it chooses to rent property. This is according to the Guyana-ExxonMobil Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) under the section which speaks to costs recoverable without further approval of the Minister.
That section of the agreement says in verbatim that the oil company can, “Recover all rentals, charges, levies, fees, taxes, and any other assessments and charges levied by the government in connection with the petroleum operations and paid directly by the contractor.”
Also recoverable by ExxonMobil is the money that they hand over to the government for environmental projects.