Dear Editor,
Letter writer Mr. Hemdutt Kumar gets the award for his befitting portrayal of the recent Energy Conference as “a shrine to greed disguised as progress” and “A government that sells a global illusion while hiding local decay, masters of narrative, and merchants of vanity.”
The program boasted close to 100 speakers including 20 Senior Government Officials, and over 50 foreigners ranging from Sultans to Prime Ministers, Ministers, Diplomats, University Professors, and Company Executives. However, not a single member or associate of the Opposition political parties which earned nearly half of the national votes in the recent elections, was invited, whilst the Government pedals its “One Guyana” charade.
When this in-your-face unpatriotic divisive behavior was brought to the attention of the Government going back to previous conferences, the unimaginable imperious response was that the Opposition had no one qualified in oil & gas to participate. The Government therefore owes the people an explanation as to what they deem to be the qualifications to participate, and how are the PPPC participants more qualified than Opposition members.
It should surprise no one that exclusions didn’t stop at political intolerances, but went beyond there to economic inaccessibility for the Mary and John public, and small businesses. General admission costed $89,000 G, almost the whole $100,000 cash grant. Small businesses faced a fee totaling G $1–2 million including transportation and hotels. Further, despite being the logical institutional anchor for petroleum expertise development and contrary to international norms, the University of Guyana (UG) was absent, though several foreign Universities played key roles.
As if that wasn’t a big enough poke in Guyanese eyes, the few locals who somehow scraped across the unaffordable barrier, were barred from asking questions, obviously to muzzle bringing attention to the very serious concerns plaguing the abnormal running of the industry. Instead, they employed a bizarre authoritarian maneuver to have the questions asked and answered by handpicked panel members, themselves. This would have been most laughable had it not been so serious; but one couldn’t escape its hilarity and caricature in the eyes of the savvy international community, of such a ridiculously unprecedented ploy to contemptuously hide the truth.
It is troublingly evident that the Government would rather sit at the table with strangers from all corners of the globe to chart what was professed to be the “Building of Guyana’s Future”, while systematically excluding nearly half of the constitutional government, and UG; and while pricing out ordinary citizens and small businesses, and barring questions from the Guyanese people who own the oil and stake in its exploitation.
It therefore begs the question: whose “Future” is actually being built and by whom?
As someone who has meaningfully participated in countless International Conferences including leading Guyana and USA delegations and Chairing two major Conferences and Planning Committees, I can unequivocally say that this Conference was an aberration, for normal Conferences of this type are to impart knowledge and share lessons learned, sometimes including training sessions, with focus on rectifying issues faced by host countries. Sadly, this was never to be at this Conference. When Exxon sponsors to the tune of $150,000, it buys more than booth space and speaking slots by whom. It buys influence in setting the agenda in its own interest and what remains absent. Its fiduciary duty to shareholders is to pump as much oil as possible, make as much money as possible, and as quickly as possible, without care of what is left to the detriment of the exploited country as recorded by the history of so many oil nations.
The failure therefore lies not with Exxon for pursuing its fiduciary mandate, but with Guyana’s Government for ceding its own responsibility to its people. If you don’t believe me read the Honorable Judge Kissoon in his landmark ruling in favour of the people against Exxon and the Government, where he concluded that “Exxon’s course of action is made permissible only by a derelict, pliant and submissive” Government.
A no-brainer would have been the crafting of an agenda with lessons learned and guidance to address the burning issues and avoid the tragic post-oil sufferings of other countries. Particularly, besides the barring of opportunities for questions, there were no panels or discussions on burning issues such as:
Renegotiating the lopsided Oil Contract to ensure Guyana entitlement to a fair deal
Developing and enforcing laws and regulations being openly violated with impunity;
Flaring massive amounts of produced gas with over 200 toxic chemicals into the atmosphere instead of reinjecting it back into the oil reservoirs as mandated by the EIAs;
Dumping toxic, radioactive, and extremely hot produced water into the clean ocean, instead of re-injecting into the oil reservoirs per international standards and EIAs;
Killing millions of fish eggs via sucking of ocean water for injection into oil reservoirs, in lieu of reinjecting produced water being dumped in the ocean;
Financial bankruptcy and environmental catastrophe with Government joining with Exxon to appeal a court’s ruling requiring Guarantee to cover costs of oil spills;
Dangerous practice of exceeding safe production limits enshrined in EIAs that risks oil spills with no guarantee to cover the costs of cleanups;
Guyanese workers paid below minimum wage, eating leftover food after others finished; most high-skilled jobs go to expatriates; and local firms struggle with qualification standards that seem designed to exclude them, while foreign companies receive waivers;
Years of delay and tripling of costs for the Gas To Energy project because of violating the strict requirement in the Oil Contract calling for a Feasibility Study
Exxon’s questionable withdrawal of USD $Billions in Decommissioning costs, years before oil is produced at each project, and Guyana stuck with costs of leaking of plugged wells on the sea floor after oil – an issue being faced in US courts
The truth about Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund which took 47 years for its 1st withdrawal in contrast to Guyana which empties the fund as soon as deposited.
Sincerely,
Dr. Vincent Adams