Country got ‘decent dea

there was no obligation on the part of the company to enter into any negotiations with our government,” he stressed.

Further, he added, “You don’t unilaterally amend a contract after the other party has invested hundreds of millions of dollars under the terms and conditions of that contract. Governments have to behave responsibly when it comes to business dealings, especially if we want to do more business down the line.

“Instead of being excited about this and trying to get prepared for the opportunities it could create like what we’re doing here today, some of us are shouting and screaming every single day from the front pages of our newspapers about what a terrible thing this is and how we’re getting ripped off and tied up like iguanas and all sorts of foolishness, including incomplete comparisons about how much other countries are getting in royalties and how little we are getting,” he posited.

“This is a new industry for Guyana and it’s one in which we don’t have any real experience, or any real expertise, or even suitable training programmes to help us build the capacity that we lack. It is an industry which requires high levels of upfront investment, well beyond what can be raised either from local sources or by local companies. Returns on that investment are also affected by price fluctuations and this increases the degree of risk for the investor. The question for us as Guyanese is - do we or do we not want an oil and gas industry in Guyana? The vast majority of the Guyanese