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Citizens must be able to understand all ExxonMobil oil project plans
AFC President David Patterson
“For a government that claims to be open and transparent, I don’t understand why Jagdeo and the PPP are hiding all these important documents. First of all, oil belongs to all of Guyana. How it is used, how it is handled and how it is extracted is a matter for every Guyanese, whether it is technical or not.”
– Patterson refutes Vice President Jagdeo’s comments that the plan is too technical
Kaieteur News– “Ask the minister … who’s going to read it? Glenn Lahr? I don’t even want to read it. You need technicians. The oil and gas industry needs professionals for field development plans. They’re going to get Glenn Lahr to read it. If you see it, who in your agency is going to read it?”
This was what Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told a reporter from Kaieteur News when he was asked whether his government would make public the Field Development Plan (FDP) of the oil project approved by ExxonMobil.
The FDP outlines how the company intends to develop the oil field, manage environmental and social impacts, and projections for production and costs.
So far, the US oil giant has approved six projects to operate in Guyana’s prolific Stabroek block, but the FDPs outlining the specifications for each project have not yet been released to the public. This newspaper recently obtained copies of the Liza One and Liza Two projects. Kaieteur News revealed in a previous article that with the FDPs, ExxonMobil is producing much more oil than each project was designed to produce, raising concerns that oil could be drained before the 20-year project lifespan.
Jagdeo was therefore asked whether the government would make public the FDPs of projects approved by his government.
As expected, the audience at the Vice President’s press conference was briefly diverted from the subject when Jagdeo spoke about the Transparency Institute’s stance on the parking meter project and the institute’s praise for the David Granger government’s release of the 2016 oil deal and strengthening of the Integrity Commission.
Coming back to the point, he boasted that the government had published all the permits and licenses for approved projects since it came to power. “If I am not mistaken, I suspect we were the ones who also provided (the FDP),” Jagdeo said.
Asked if he would provide the other four documents, he said: “Ask the minister.” Jagdeo also scoffed: “Who will read it? Glenn Lal? I can’t even read it. You need technicians. The oil and gas industry needs professionals for field development plans. They will ask Glenn Lal, the expert, to read it. If you see it, who in your agency will read it?”
All FDPs should be made public
Former public infrastructure minister and Alliance for Change (AFC) chairman David Patterson told this newspaper on Tuesday that all FDPs should be available to the public. Patterson explained: “They should be available to the public and that is the basis on which the licence is issued. It contains many details that the public should know. Several assumptions made by the public are included in its design criteria.”
He pointed out that the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) for oil projects are also lengthy and technical, yet these documents are available to the public. “Kaieteur News and other members of the public read these documents line by line to understand what ExxonMobil claims, so it is absolutely unacceptable for him to hide the facts by using the excuse that the documents are technical and people cannot read them,” the MP pointed out.
Patterson added: “For a government that claims to be open and transparent, I don’t understand why Jagdeo and the PPP would hide all these important documents. First of all, oil belongs to the whole of Guyana. How it is used, how it is handled and how it is extracted is a matter for every Guyanese, whether it is technical or not. The general public needs to understand these technicalities, so for him to hide these technicalities is just an indication that they obviously knew that these technicalities would be questioned, so they are just trying to deceive the public.”
In addition to the FDP, the former minister also highlighted the government’s failure to publish an assessment of the oilfield development plan completed by Canadian lawyer and former politician Alison Merrilla Redford.
She was twice appointed to review ExxonMobil’s Payara and Yellowtail FDPs. Industry experts could not understand why Redford was chosen for such an important position, given that she did not have a strong record of advocating for the states on field development plans. They were surprised that “Guyana’s approval rate for ExxonMobil projects was very high” after Redford’s comments. They pointed out that Redford reviewed Payara and Yellowtail in 42 and 52 days respectively.
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