There were good reasons for Guyana to expedite this deal with ExxonMobil

Dear Editor,

“Yet whatever concerns Guyana may have about Venezuela’s border claims, Global Witness believes they do not justify Trotman’s signing of the 2016 Stabroek license on the terms proposed. The deal was the largest in Guyanese history, and Trotman apparently rushed to sign it before the Liza 2 announcement despite soliciting advice from two experts who said he needed more information.” This from the Global Witness Report.

If Editor, this is not the height of arrogance and disrespect for the Guyanese people on the part of Global Witness, then I don’t know what is. This NGO is telling Guyana that whatever concerns we have about the Venezuela claim and its intricacies for the development of our oil and gas industry, should not be a priority over getting the most money we could from Exxon. Global Witness wants/wanted Guyana to ignore its concerns and just go for the most money it could get. In my view this singular position taken by Global Witness should discredit anything this organization has to say. It’s like telling your daughter look don’t rush to marry this man who truly loves you and has proven it in his actions over time; look at marrying the other guy next door who has lots of money and ignore his threats of violence and invasion of our home if we don’t sell him our house.

I hope our political parties despite their quest to form the government after March 2, will stand together in debunking this Global Witness nonsense being given such wide publicity.

Editor, allow me the space to debunk this preposterous position (quoted above) advanced by Global Witness, and I do so as someone who has closely followed and participated in numerous events that have analyzed Venezuela’s internal politics, its relations with Guyana and the geopolitical landscape in relation to Guyana’s oil and gas discoveries. I am also doing so while in possession of some “usually reliable” intelligence gathered from key decision makers in various places.

Global Witness speaks about a rush to sign an agreement. In my view that was necessary. Guyana needed first oil prior to the determination of its case at the International Court of Justice. This was just as necessary as it was necessary for then President Janet Jagan to award Exxon licenses for 600 blocks when the law provided for only 60 to be awarded. It was critical back then to ensure that Guyana had a major US company like Exxon committed to operating in our maritime space claimed by Venezuela, and we had to make it attractive for Exxon to commit to investing in Guyana. I don’t know whether Mrs. Jagan had in her possession at that time any “intelligence” about the possible actions of Venezuela regarding Guyana but I would assume she did and was advised to act quickly to ensure an American presence in that maritime

process that will take a long time. The Ministry of Communities has admitted that it has a backlog of housing applications, as most people who have applied for house lots know. Furthermore, the movement from application to acceptance does not immediately afford a family shelter. The majority receive plots of land, which they must pay for and on which they have to build houses. So, even if there was leapfrogging involved, therefore, the entire process would still take years. It would appear that in the interim, it is okay for these unfortunate folks to dwell under distressing conditions. The residents had claimed, at the time of the collapse, that the range house units had been allocated to them 23 years ago as a temporary measure until they could be awarded house lots. Backlog or not, 23 years is a long time to wait for a house lot; it would appear after that promise was made, these families were simply forgotten. A look at the buildings that collapsed reveals that they were not maintained. Some had vegetation growing on the outside and throughout the broken-down sections, rotted wood was clearly visible. They were just a disaster waiting to happen. In addition, those that remain standing give every indication that they could also succumb to the same fate. What then? Obviously, a series of shacks in this East La Penitence community while these families continue to wait. For years, successive governments have designated affordable housing as a priority and while some citizens have been able to realise this Guyanese dream, too many more are still waiting. At the beginning of 2017, the CHPA had 25,000 housing applications on file, the majority of which were holdovers from the previous administration,

area.

It is also important to remind Guyanese that in 2015 when Presidents Granger and Maduro met with UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon, Ban in his statement following the meeting spoke of developing the resources of the area for the mutual benefit of the two people. What exactly did he mean by that? The oil and gas is in Guyana’s maritime space and therefore the resource of the people of Guyana. This statement could not have been lost on President Granger and his team and I hope that it was based on the intelligence in its possession that the government rushed to sign an agreement with Exxon. Global Witness and its acolytes are claiming Guyana will lose 55 billion US dollars but it seems lost on them that we could have lost everything. Editor, your newspaper would have published letters from me in the past about this issue including one back in 2016 in which I informed that Guyana’s oil was being counted as part of Venezuela’s reserves by some leading Venezuelans in the US at a Council of the Americas forum. The so-called Venezuelan government in exile counts Guyana’s oil and gas as part of the resources of Venezuela it could use to launch an economic recovery programme if and when it gains office.

It is being argued by some that then President Burnham did not pursue investment in the oil and gas industry because he could not get a

this is according to Finance Minister Winston Jordan’s budget speech that year. Of that number, 18,000 were low-income applications. The APNU+AFC administration won elections in 2015 and according to its Ministry of Communities, processed some 4,000 applications per year. It also built a number of homes which citizens were able to purchase, the latest such scheme being at Perseverance, East Bank Demerara. Yet, Plastic City, an impoverished community in a mangrove swamp at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara, which has been in existence for some 27 years, is still there. Like the people at East La Penitence, the residents of Plastic City have been made promises by politicians for years – the most recent coming from President David Granger on January 31 on the hustings in Region Three. “There will be no more Plastic City,” Mr Granger was quoted as saying. In reality, there isn’t. The original plastic homes have been replaced with wooden ones over the 27 years of the community’s existence, but the lack of potable water, electricity and protection from the tides still exist. Among squatter settlements, Plastic City has to be the worst. It should have ceased to exist 27 years ago. Hopefully, there is a humane resolution in store for both the residents of the East La Penitence collapsed ranges and of Plastic City, regardless of who wins next month.

fair deal. As far as I know, that is not true. The technology available at that time for offshore exploration and drilling rendered such activity not feasible and therefore development of our oil and gas industry was put on hold. At that time the Venezuelan claim did not “loom too large” in this consideration since Burnham and then Venezuelan president Carlos Andres Perez and by extension Guyana and Venezuela enjoyed very good if not excellent relations.

Another factor that must be taken into account is the geopolitical landscape and the role of oil and gas. 2016 saw the election of Donald Trump as president of the US. While the Guyana government may have signed the agreement with Exxon prior to Trump’s election, there was already a lot of speculation about the Trump/Putin relationship much of which has since led to the impeachment of Trump. This is a president who excluded all Americans from an Oval Office meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister. It cannot be lost on anyone that Putin is a dear friend of Maduro and that there is significant Russian involvement in Venezuela today, including in it oil and gas industry.

It used to be that nations interacted with one Washington, DC in the past….now it’s two. One cannot predict Washington as easily as in the past.

Allow me Editor to refer to one recent development which though it may look and sound far-fetched, may not be totally unrelated to the issue under discussion here.

I hope the geopolitical strategists in Guyana and more so in government are analyzing the contemptuous behaviour on the part of this Russian company to determine whether its behaviour is not intended to provoke a situation that would serve as the occasion and not the cause for certain adjustments to the political/diplomatic relationship Russia currently maintains with Guyana and whether such adjustments may be linked to Russia/Venezuela relations in the context of Guyana’s growing oil discoveries.

Further such analysis may want to look into what might be the Trump position (as distinct from the US administration’s) on any possible Russia inspired scenario that can have a negative impact on Guyana.

Yours faithfully, Wesley Kirton