Exxon confirms US$18m bonus

ExxonMobil Country Manager Rod Henson (left) and Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman with the production licence on June 15 this year. (Ministry of Natural Resources photo)

ExxonMobil yesterday confirmed that a signing bonus of US$18M was paid into a Bank of Guyana account last year for the government and it defended its conduct.

“Let me say that signing bonuses are customary and normal in many petroleum agreements , not all but many around the world, as part of the total financial agreement,” ExxonMobil Country Manager, Rod Henson, said last evening, when asked by Stabroek News at a lecture at Queen’s College .

“In this case, when this agreement was finalised, thorough negotiations were done and executed. We did pay a US$18M signing bonus to the Bank of Guyana, to an account that is owned by the Government of Guyana and designated by the Ministry of Finance, not to any individual but to a government bank account designated by the Ministry of Finance,” he added.

It is the first time that the