Oil governments

Jun 08, 2025 Editorial, News

Editorial…

Kaieteur News – The people of Guyana have been failed by successive Guyana Governments. In October, 2016, the APNU+AFC Coalition Government failed Guyanese with that oil contract that it signed with ExxonMobil relative to the Stabroek Block. Guyanese are now yoked to an oil contract that has effectively converted their great wealth to a state of almost perpetual economic slavery to ExxonMobil. In June 2025, the PPPC Government, in essence, hung the specter of bankruptcy on the heads of Guyanese. This came about when President Irfaan Ali assented to the Oil Pollution Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Responsibility Bill making it part of Guyana’s laws (Oil Pollution Law).

The Coalition Government-signed oil contract has the impregnable shield of “sanctity of contract”, according to President Ali, Vice President Jagdeo, and Attorney General Nandlall. The contract is sacred, which makes it inviolable. The Guyana Government, and Guyana itself, therefore, has no room to maneuver. Now, as if to one-up the damaging handiwork of the APNU+AFC Coalition, the PPPC Government came up with this dangerous Oil Pollution Law. Whatever Guyanese may disagree on, they have one piece of reality on which they could find common agreement. Both the Coalition Government of 2015-2020 and the current PPPC Government of 2020-? have thrown the citizens of this country under the bus. When there were expectations of a huge flow of money, from this nation’s oil patrimony, the 2016 ExxonMobil contract put an end to such rich dreams. That raw deal, lopsided deal, and vile deal, is on the APNU+AFC Coalition’s head, is fully owned by it.

The Coalition Government led by President David Granger gave up the money from oil that should have come to Guyana, almost nine years ago. A week ago, the PPPC Government under the presidency of Dr. Irfaan Ali gave up the security shield that belongs to all Guyana. The Oil Pollution Law does not give Guyana the kind of coverage that it may need, should there be a huge oil spill offshore, and the devastation spreads to neighbors in the region. Guyana may be able to go to the courts over the oil contract, if only to test its sanctity, but the odds of succeeding are tall. In respect of the Oil Pollution Law, Guyana is effectively barred from approaching the ExxonMobil parent corporation to cover liabilities, should there be the kind of oil spill of such consequence that such a step is demanded.

One government handed over the bulk of the oil money to ExxonMobil, via that 2016 contract. The other government handed to ExxonMobil parent company, a law that indemnifies it from full liability in the event of a catastrophic oil spill. By any standard, can either the APNU+AFC or the PPPC be thought of as national governments that lived up to that name, and did their duty by their people? We at this publication have extreme difficulty with such a thought, any such posture, and for the best of reasons. Both governments, and their leaders, have allowed themselves to be outmaneuvered and outgunned by the men of ExxonMobil. The leaders of both governments have made themselves look like amateurs in the hands of ExxonMobil’s CEO, Darren Woods, and ExxonMobil’s Guyana Country Head, Alistair Routledge.

Locally, both opposition and PPPC Government operate as though they are the sole towers of intellect and wisdom. Yet, when they have to be at their best when Guyana’s oil wealth involved, both have been at their weakest, their pathetic worst. What kind of national government signs a contract for a meager 2% royalty, zero company taxes and 75% in expenses taken from its oil revenues before profits are computed? The APNU+AFC Coalition Government did, and many Guyanese are left hungry despite daily oil production standing at over 650,000 barrels. What kind of national government upturns a judicial decision that calls for a full parent company guarantee in the event of a major offshore oil spill, by focusing on an anemic subsidiary, and not the wealthy parent company? The PPPC Government did that, and Guyana now doesn’t have the fallback option of going after ExxonMobil itself if the worse were to occur. The APNU+AFC Coalition and PPPC Governments have not been oil governments, they have oil goofballs.

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APNU+AFC coalition, Editorial, Goverment Oil Policy, Guyana Government Failures, Oil Pollution Law, Oil Pollution Prevention

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