Dodging Exxon’s parent guarantee proof

Jan 28, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The inspiring news is that the US$2 billion parent guarantee proof can be requested from Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But a ‘formal request’ must be made. Hopefully the red tape is not to blacklist any citizen. The question is why simple things cause such mortal fear in the PPP/C Government and Vice President Jagdeo.

Look at the lengths to which Jagdeo went to dodge and distance himself from the partial guarantee document’s availability and delivery. Guyanese had better hope they are getting the real thing, something that binds ExxonMobil. This matter was straightforwardness itself, the lodging of the evidence of the US$2 billion parent company guarantee from ExxonMobil. Yet its delivery was all over the place. In seeking to pinpoint his true position, there was the strange: Jagdeo shifting, stutter stepping and conditioning his answers on the US$2 billion guarantee, which led to more mysteries than transparencies.

As he said, if it was left to him, the guarantee would be made public. We commend him for speaking with a straight tongue in that role. He, as a national leader, however, couldn’t instruct the EPA to release or withhold the document ordered by the Court. While there is appreciation for the independence of the EPA, the essence of what Jagdeo said boiled down to the alarming.

It is that the EPA is bigger than the government, that the EPA may not have to respond to the court, and that the EPA is a local stronghold that is unapproachable and impregnable. In other words, nobody and no entity, including the Guyana judiciary, cannot direct Guyana’s EPA what to do relative to this US$2 billion ExxonMobil guarantee. There is something fishy about that, definitely smelly. We wonder if Guyana’s EPA is a secret society pretending to be a protective regulatory body. Now, the EPA came clean: the guarantee could be viewed, but apply first.

Regardless of what cover the law gave to the EPA, the principled thing was to release the evidence right away. The concern, per Jagdeo, was that the floodgates would crash down, leading to the inundation of the EPA with such requests. With this being so, clearly Guyana’s EPA is on a collision course with the transparency and accountability promised by President Ali. Guyanese are keenly interested in what they have for protection, as limited as US$2 billion is, in the event of an oil spill. But, due to the fear of an avalanche of similar such requests, the EPA was digging in its heels and saying no to releasing the proof of the guarantee. Commonsense prevailed.

But, of even more relevance and importance, this US$2 billion parent guarantee was a matter between the Guyana Government and ExxonMobil, pursuant to articles 2.4 and 20.2 of the 2016 contract. The government should have been demanding the evidence of the parent guarantee. It was not a matter for the EPA.

How could releasing the evidence of the parent company guarantee ever be harmful? Why the initial resistance, and who was behind it? Whose interests took precedence before Guyanese? Why extend the veil of secrecy so common to governance in Guyana to this guarantee? We remind Guyanese that it was Jagdeo who was forever in pain about a full parent company guarantee. He was the one who sprang this US$2 billion number on Guyanese that caused convulsions with proof ordered. Recall Jagdeo’s positions: we are working to get them (ExxonMobil) to acknowledge the US$2 billion coverage. Then, speak to the EPA, when pressed for an answer on the guarantee. Next, he thought that the US$2 billion was a done deal. More evasions occurred with the Natural Resources Minister dragged into the mix, which led to the dead end of no legal requirement to release.

This US$2 billion parent guarantee should not have diminished to a state secret to be rigidly guarded. Guyanese observe again the artfulness that has become an inseparable aspect of this oil wealth. It was Jagdeo who was talking up “better contract management” with this oil. Were early objections to release the evidence of the US$2 billion guarantee part of such improved management? Secrecy, no legal obligation, and acrobatic politicians form part of the DNA of this oil patrimony.

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documents, Editorial, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), guarantee, parent

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