Absence of unified front allows oil companies to exploit our differences – Patterson

Feb 27, 2021 News

– Tells Parliament, “We are ready for a better deal”

Coalition MP, David Patterson, during his address to parliament yesterday

Kaieteur News -The lack of a unified front in the management of Guyana’s resources has allowed oil companies to exploit the country’s differences, says Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), David Patterson.
During his presentation on the budget to the National Assembly, yesterday, Patterson decried the divide on the government and opposition side, and recalled that this disunited state has posed “adverse affects” on the country.
Against this background, Patterson indicated that the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition is willing to offer its support “in presenting a united position” so that it can jointly “address the alleged inadequacies in the [oil] contract and any other document, including the environmental permit.”
“It is our position that once we present a united position to our international partners, the harder it will be for them to continue ignoring our concerns,” Patterson said to the National Assembly gathered at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
This is the second recorded occasion where Patterson has shared the coalition’s support to renegotiate the ExxonMobil deal – one that has been deemed lopsided and unfair for Guyana by local, regional and international experts.
Earlier in January, Patterson, who is the shadow Oil and Gas Minister, told a panel that during the coalition’s five years in government, it “never got the chance to correct the poor provisions in the deal.”
Examples of a few of these sub-standard provisions which are crafted in such ways that Guyana would suffer significant value leakage, include Guyana paying Exxon’s billions of dollars in taxes; pre-contract costs discrepancies; unspecified interest rates expensed to Guyana for loans to the oil entities; weak environmental standards; Guyana’s inability to control the amount of oil being produced; and infrastructure cost anomalies between the Liza One & Liza Two Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels.
However, Patterson uttered that if the new PPP/C government wishes to renegotiate such a deal, the coalition will be offering their “unconditional support”.
Notably, during his time as Opposition Leader, now Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo had repeatedly trashed the Exxon deal. Even in December 2020, the VP had taken issue with the fact that some of the wordings of the Stabroek Block Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) create the impression that ExxonMobil and its co-contractors have “sovereignty” over Guyana.
But even with these reservations and criticisms, the VP and the PPP/C government have refused to renegotiate the lopsided Exxon contract.