Dear Editor,
It is unfortunate to witness firsthand the amount of time, energy and resources expended by the likes of a talk show host and the Opposition to mislead by way of spreading misinformation or disinformation to an entire nation.
The professional standard of the media fraternity seems to be diminishing with each passing day, as no one cares to fact-check and verify information before publishing. There was a time when journalists/media entities would fact-check stories before publishing. In so doing, they would call the subject matter agencies, authorities, ministry, or whoever is the subject matter, to find out, verify, and confirm “FACTS”.
The talk show host and the political Opposition together accused the current Government of granting a one-year extension for the relinquishment of 20% of the Stabroek block by ExxonMobil pursuant to the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). Turns out that this extension was granted by former President Granger before demitting office in July 2020. Will Glenn Lall and the Opposition apologize to the Government now?
While approval was granted for operation during the COVID-19 pandemic, and there were ongoing operations indeed, my understanding is that the intended pace of activities was nonetheless hindered. This is the reason why the extension was sought and granted, and also the reason why the current Government upheld the extension.
Did the talk show host request that ExxonMobil explain why the extension was granted if the operation was ongoing? Had he done so, ExxonMobil would have been obligated to give an explanation. In fact, they should do so, in order that the nation can have an understanding.
One would think that this is the job of the media, but instead of engaging and seeking answers from all the stakeholders involved, the publisher sees it best to, in his usual style, sell false information.
There is another example of this unethical and unprofessional behaviour by this particular publisher that I wish to point out. In one of his recent Tik Tok videos, he said Government is waiting on some cable to monitor how much crude is being extracted offshore; suggesting that there is no monitoring, checks and balances, or verification of the crude oil extracted and shipped out of Guyana.
But common sense would dictate that if a ship is leaving our maritime space, there must be some way to verify and check this out. As a matter of fact, it is required by law for MARAD to monitor, check, verify, approve, and authorize each ship/tanker that leaves or enters our maritime zone.
Each tanker, which is referred to as a “lift”, carries one million barrels of crude oil. So, if we had 70 lifts, that is 70 tankers carrying one million each, which is equal to 70 million barrels of crude.
The time this host took to make a “video” would have been better spent if he had taken less than one minute to make a few phone calls to the relevant agencies to confirm that there is real-time monitoring offshore by the EPA, GRA, GBS (Guyana Bureau of Standards) and MARAD.
Additionally, for every oil tanker that leaves the Stabroek block, a series of activities and reports are carried out, and the Government has to grant the final approval.
As such, I would like to urge the host that, since he walked across the country from Berbice to Essequibo, he can also go out into the Atlantic Ocean with a boat, spend a few days or weeks near the FPSO with his binoculars to verify for himself, too, if the above are indeed carried out.
He has the resources to do it, rather than publicizing his usual nonsense.
Yours respectfully,
Joel Bhagwandin
