American journalist Steve Coll describes an illuminating exchange in 2001 between then President George Walker Bush and the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Worried that the United States (U.S) multinational ExxonMobil was delaying a deal with India’s largest state-owned oil company, Vajpayee allegedly asked Bush: “Why don’t you just tell them what to do?” The 43rd President’s response was ominous: “Nobody tells those guys what to do!”
Yet Guyana harbours great dreams of rich royalties and fair proceeds from recent huge petroleum finds by ExxonMobil (XOM). Before any oil is even pumped up from its promising off-shore reservoirs, this country is already ambitiously and incongruously contemplating the viability of setting up a refinery. The powers that be, need to scrutinise Trinidad and Tobago’s expensive learning experience with its State-owned,
