Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 16, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
Kaieteur News – Glenn Lall, the publisher of this newspaper and the force behind the campaign to ensure a better oil deal, has long insisted that we have become tenants in our own home. The deal which was signed with ExxonMobil and the other oil companies effectively, he says, relegates us to the lower flat and to paying rent in this property which is called our country.
Imagine someone walks into your home, orders you to move into the lower flat and takes over the running of the entire property.
Glenn uses simple examples to illustrate his point. He asks us to imagine that we have a home and we have the transport in our name.
But when it comes to how the home is managed, we have no say. We, he said, have become tenants in our own home.
Each month the oil company sends us the bills and we have no say in any of the spending of the oil companies, even though we have to repay every cent of the recoverable costs.
According to this newspaper, “The oil companies have come here and taken over our oil resources. They are making all the decisions: They are determining how much oil is being produced. They are determining what is to be spent and how it is to be spent.
Guyana has no say.” We have in other words become tenants in our own home.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister of Barbados, addressing the International Energy Conference and Exposition noted, “The day that we do not provide opportunities for our citizens who participate in active citizenship from being able to benefit from the patrimony of our countries, is the day we sow the seeds of destruction for our nations.” She was at the time referencing the controversy which has erupted over Guyana’s local content laws. She went on to add that at no stage, as newly-independent nations of our world, we leave our citizens as tenants in their own land.”
But this is effectively what is taking place in Guyana because of the one-sided deal which was signed with the oil companies. Local content or no local content we are already tenants in our own land.
Guyana has effectively become a tenant in its own land because how the country’s petroleum resources are developed is in the hands of the oil companies. We do not even have a National Depletion Policy in place, one of the most basic requirements for any oil and gas sector. Our leaders have deemed this not to be priority. The oil companies are therefore free to do as they please and bring up as much oil as they please and when they please.
We have no control over costs. The oil companies have total control of this. They can reserve the entire Marriott for their staff and determine who flies first class and who gets what pay. Guyana has to foot the bill. In effect, we have become tenants in our own land.
Three and a half years ago, New Zealand banned foreigners from buying property in their country. The government made it clear that New Zealanders will not become tenants in their own country.
Yet, in Guyana, we do not have a law which prohibits foreigners, including oil companies from owning lands. But, we have the audacity to pass a local content law to allow locals 100 percent participation in rental of buildings. ExxonMobil is building its own headquarters in Guyana. Trinidadian firms have already begun to buy up lands and properties and other non-regional investors are no doubt doing the same. We are going to become tenants in our own land.
We have no oil spill insurance. In the event of an oil spill, our fisher folks are going to be pauperised. They will be unable to fish in our local waters. In effect, they will become tenants in their own country having to depend on the kindness of others.
The International Energy Conference, however, is not going to address these issues. This Conference is about doing business. It is a Conference for the bourgeoisie who clapped heartily when reference was made about ensuring local participation in the oil sector. Little did those applauding realise that because of the terms of the oil contract and the position of dominance held by Exxon Mobil, we are already tenants in our own country. Their applause was a salute to our own misfortune.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
Jagdeo giving Exxon 102 cent to collect 2 cent.
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