Your Eyewitness perused the book Trotman wrote on how he “re-negotiated” the oil contract with Exxon seven years ago. That’s what the man said: “renegotiated”!! But yours truly is wondering why the issue hasn’t gained traction among the chatterati of civil society – demanding that Trotman “fess up”. All the fella revealed – in one of the most disingenuous statements in the annals of cover-ups – was he’d “doubled” the royalty rate from that the PPP had signed back in 1999.
What he glossed over was that his “doubling” meant Guyana would be getting a measly 2% of revenues – in an industry where the average royalty’s 7-10%!!! The PPP had agreed to 1% at a time when no one knew if there was oil under that part of the ocean. So they had to bend over backwards to attract a credible operator like Exxon. Trotman, on the other hand, was “re-negotiating” at a time when that contract had expired – and IT WAS CONFIRMED Exxon had struck a world-class oil field!! Exxon could’ve been taken to the cleaners!
Then there was the lack of “ring fencing” – which simply means that in deducting expenses for determining profits, each well should’ve been considered on its own. Imagine being allowed to deduct 75% of the costs FROM EVEN NEW WELLS BEING DRILLED AND NEW FPSOS BEING BUILT!! At this rate – since there’s no incentive for Exxon to ease up spending – we’ll never ever get more than the 14.5% profit Trotman agreed to!!
So was there ANY reason proffered in Trotman’s book that made ANY sense?? Well, he said he was TOLD to sign along the dotted line!! Now, if he was simply following orders to sign away our birthright, how can he say he “RENEGOTIATED” the contract?? Doesn’t “renegotiate” mean he had to’ve engaged in some sort of haggling with the Exxon folks across the table??
Maybe Guyanese will one day find out what really happened during those “re-negotiations” – but not from Trotty’s book. But as a caution, he should note that recently Angola’s Supreme Court ordered the “preventive” seizure of assets worth about US$1 billion held by Isabel dos Santos, the former President of Angola’s daughter!! Was it part of remembering “Nassau”!!
Guyanese have to wake up and smell the bush rum. This Eyewitness has insisted it was the DUTY of the Exxon executives to do whatever it took – within the law – to deliver more profits for their shareholders. Their trail of lawsuits and fines from Alaska to Zanzibar shows Exxon pushes the envelope on whoever’s the law. Unfortunately, Guyana’s represented by Trotman who’s more concerned about Exxon than Guyana.
Pick sense from nonsense: if Trotman REVEALED the 2% royalty…what’s unrevealed?!!
…on Chinese outrages
One of the under-remarked occurrences that’s increasing in our dear mud-land is about the robberies, murders, and other attacks on Chinese restaurants and their owners. With the rise of China as a global power, there was an expected parallel increase in Chinese businessmen and construction/project personnel. But whether spontaneously or as official policy – following in the former’s wake – there have been other Chinese migrants who’ve gravitated in retailing and restaurants.
They’re everywhere in Guyana. With their immigrant drive for economic advancement and willingness to use the factors of production – labour and time – they have in abundance; they’ve become targets for nightime robberies. These Chinese business owners are considered soft targets by the criminals and there isn’t a week that goes by that another “incident” isn’t reported.
One option to protect the Chinese businesses might be the formation of “triads” to both protect and hustle the businesses. Do Guyanese really want to go down this road?? Have the public any idea of how dangerous triads are??
…protection
Well, the PNC did relaunch the People’s Militia as an “army reserve”. 400+ men and women trained right to defend we, the Guyanese people. But after the government changed your Eyewitness hasn’t been hearing about them?? He feels unprotected.
