“Don’t play politics with Guyana’s Oil and Gas” – Ramson

…calls for release of 2016 contract with Tullow and Eco
Attorney-at-law Charles Ramson Jr on Tuesday said the selective release of the CGX contract is the Government’s way of attempting to play political mitigation, and is nothing but a red herring seeking to deflect from a bad or “suckered” renegotiated deal with ExxonMobil after nearly three billion barrels of high quality oil were discovered in Guyana in March 2015.
Ramson noted that if Government released the contract with CGX in an attempt to say that “our terms are not much different from the previous contracts, so do not beat us up,” then this is yet another example of the march of folly.
He added that the true test of whether the Government is protecting Guyana’s interest and patrimony are the fiscal terms contained in the contract/licence signed in 2016 with the oil companies Eco and Tullow for the Orinduik Block, since that would have been signed after “we knew we had a proven petroleum system with commercial quantities of oil of high quality – let the Government release that contract! Don’t play politics with Guyana’s oil”, he charged.
Eco’s website reports that in “January 2016, Eco Atlantic signed a Petroleum Agreement and is party to an Offshore Petroleum Licence with the Government of Guyana and Tullow Oil for the Orinduik Block offshore Guyana. The 1800 km² Orinduik block is situated in shallow water 170 km offshore Guyana in the Suriname/Guyana basin, and is located 6.5 km from the recent ExxonMobil Liza discoveries.”
Ramson pointed out that all of the contracts/licences issued prior to the discovery of commercial quantities of oil are only tangentially relevant. The contract with ExxonMobil was re-negotiated in 2016, so at that point we had a fairly good appraisal of what we had, and the Government should have secured a better deal.
“Even if you attempt to say that was our first contract, what did you get for Guyana with the contract/licence with Eco and Tullow for the Orinduik block in 2016, which is adjacent to the Stabroek block, where the world class discovery was made and (is) likely to have fairly similar geology? Don’t selectively release to try to beg for mercy”, he challenged.
The attorney added that the true test of whether the Government is trying to be transparent is not whether it released two contracts, but whether it released all the contracts.
“Release all the contracts and stop playing political cloak and dagger with Guyanese resources. Guyana’s resources belong to all the Guyanese people, and not the Government, so release all the contracts now,” he demanded.