Alistair Routledge and Maduro Moros

Dec 18, 2023 Editorial

Editorial…

Kaieteur News – ExxonMobil’s Chief Executive Officer in Guyana, Mr. Alistair Routledge, had some helpful words for Venezuela’s Chief Executive, Mr. Nicolás Maduro Moros. In American, it is no way, Jose. In Spanish, it is no mas, as in no more of the nonsense that comes out of Venezuela, so take note and get a grip on self and ambitions. We also hear the ExxonMobil’s Guyana CEO saying cut the recklessness, quit with the bullying, because the company has the most powerful asset at its back. It is the might of the US Government to set Mr. Maduro right so that he comes to his senses in a hurry.

“We are not going anywhere,” said Mr. Routledge. “Our focus remains on developing the resources efficiently and responsibly, per our agreement with the Guyanese Government.” Translation: get lost, eat those words Maduro, and run away with tail between legs. Try that with someone else in some other place, but not here, because ‘we (ExxonMobil) ain’t backing down.’ The message to Maduro and his cronies in Caracas is “Don’t mess with Texas!” As President Maduro makes plans to go to Russia, he is reminded not to mess with America.

We at this paper have serious differences with ExxonMobil and its obscene 2016 oil contract that it foisted (bullied) Guyana. We also recognize the strength from which ExxonMobil’s man on the ground here, Alistair Routledge, speaks with such supreme confidence, such unruffled calm. In thinking of ExxonMobil’s Routledge unyielding stance, the memory of the President of General Motors Corp’s Charles Wilson returns. It is what the US Congressional Record memorialized of how he responded to a question about interests. “For years, I thought that what was good for our country was what was good for General Motors, and vice versa.” This was what has been continually misquoted as ‘what is good for GM is what is good for America.’ Replace General Motors with ExxonMobil, and Maduro suddenly is not looking too strong, or lodged in too good of a position. This is regardless of whatever transpires between him and Vladimir Putin in his upcoming visit to Moscow. To nail this down firmly, it was American President Calvin Coolidge who said, “After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.”

A hundred years later that profound concern of America has not altered. If anything, it has intensified in a whole range of business pursuits, and in numerous places around the world. Without a doubt, Mr. Routledge stands on the firmest ground, and it is all because the interests of ExxonMobil are so intricately woven into the interests of America. There is energy, and the economic, and the strategic, and the military. ExxonMobil is perched where it is in the American corporate pantheon, and encircles an expression of American strengths and, if circumstances make necessary, can summon a projection of American power. Mr. Maduro is playing rather irresponsibly with matches, and he continues with his recklessness, there is a high probability of burning himself.

ExxonMobil’s Guyana operation is an oil company’s sweetest dream coming true. The basement level two percent royalty and zero taxes mean that this American Orca has much to bare its teeth and flex its muscles about. It is inconceivable that a company from a superpower country, the dominant one currently, would surrender to a usurper’s ultimatums, and hustle away from the Guyana bonanza. ExxonMobil was forced to shut down its wells in Venezuela, pack up its tools, and head back home a few years ago. The likelihood of a repeat in Guyana today, compliments of Hugo Chavez’s disciple Nicolás Maduro is remote to nonexistent. ExxonMobil is sitting on a mother lode of oil, and it will not be relinquished, regardless of the bombast and bullying of Maduro.

Maduro rolled out his post referendum plans, and ExxonMobil’s Routledge stuffed them into a barrel, and rolled them right back at him. At least Guyana in 2023 is getting some value from the oil bargain it made with ExxonMobil back in 2016. This is one formidable and nuanced aspect of the international community that Guyana has made its cornerstone position towards clear Venezuelan dangers.

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