Economist Tarron Khemraj says that from all of the analyses he has seen of the oil deal for the Stabroek Bock, Guyana will end up getting just around 37% of the gross revenues while ExxonMobil and its partners will cream off the rest.
In his Business Page column in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, Khemraj also suggests that there may not be much room for Guyana to back out of the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEGPL).
The APNU+AFC government’s secret renegotiation in 2016 of the 1999 PSA has evoked condemnation from prominent individuals and parts of civil society. The much-maligned agreement was concluded without expert negotiators being employ-ed and after the discovery by EEGPL of reserves of over one billion barrels of oils in the Liza block with the prospect of more finds. The reserves have now ballooned to over three billion barrels of oil with more likely to be added. However, Guyana’s take will remain fixed to the 2016 terms no matter how much oil is found.
