Shams and scams

Mar 03, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – We suspected it, came to know it, and said it.  We have said it right here and often, so that our fellow citizens would have the clearest idea of what is at work with their wealth.  At least, how it is managed, with the shafts and scams that are laid on the head of naïve, gullible Guyanese.  Now a company from Japan opened its mouth and spoke to the truth of the way things really are in Guyana’s oil sector.

The project’s “fundamentals are so strong, that sanction by ExxonMobil and its partners on the prolific Stabroek Block are seen as a formality once regulatory approvals are in place.”  The company is MODEC, a Japanese Floater Specialist, over which Mr. Takeshi Kanamori, is President and Chief Executive Officer (‘Approval of Exxon’s 5^th oil project only a formality for us-FPSO builder’, KN March 1).  If anybody does know about what is actually happening with the 5^th oil project, Uaru, then it is MODEC  and Mr. Kanamori who are best positioned.  They know more than what most Guyanese know, and we believe that the company is absolutely right in expressing confidence in public that approval for the project is a mere “formality.”

This has to be a joke, a big, running joke being played on the owners of this wealth, the Guyanese people.  The PPPC Government pretends that there is careful weighing of the pros and cons of the 5^th project, when all that is happening behind the scenes is a combination of farce and folly.  For the company to be this bold, already on the move with preparations, it means that strong assurances have been given that there is nothing to worry about since there is none in governmental corners holding things up.

It confirms what we at this paper have been saying all along.  First, it is that ongoing public consultations are a pretense at giving the Guyanese people a say in their oil business.  Second, that the approval process of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an exercise in impotence and trickery.  And third, that the pronouncements of government officials are not to be taken seriously because they lack credibility.  All of these games are intended to do nothing but mock the Guyanese people, give them a little hope that something is going on with their benefit in mind, and that government and leaders should be trusted.

This cannot be, is not with what is happening; not when the checks and protections, through honest and diligent official efforts, are not being thought through, and not worked through to the finest detail.  Instead, what we have distils to “formality” as was said very clearly by foreign sources.  It is even more insulting to Guyanese, more contemptuous of their interests, when their own government and leaders lack the courage to share with them the truths of how our oil patrimony is being managed.  The irony, the mockery, is that we have to depend on foreigners for information on developments in our rich oil sector.

As added proof of where things stand in this country, it is ExxonMobil that is informing Guyanese that it was issued all that is required for its extensive and continuous work in the Demerara River, relative to the laying of pipelines to the Wales gas-to-energy terminal.  ExxonMobil was kind enough to share with citizens that Guyana’s EPA had released the necessary permit on November 25, 2022.  As we thank ExxonMobil for this rare openness (self-protective, to be sure), we wonder where the local EPA is, and from where this information should be coming- in fact, should have been with Guyanese over three months ago.

This is the ugly, unhappy state of affairs with Guyana’s fabulously rich oil sector.  Guyanese scrap around for information so that they can have some clarity regarding what is going on, and this has to come from foreigners.  The livelihood of our fisherfolk, welfare of our communities areat stake, and this is the level of disrespect that is dealt to Guyanese by their own people, those in places of authority and trust.  With a government like the PPPC, still worse should be expected, for there is no truth in it.

• Editorial, ExxonMobil, Japan, Shams and scams, Stabroek Block