Nothing ‘sinister’ in oil deals signed on eve of last elections

The JHI concession in the Canje Block, where Mid-Atlantic Oil & Gas Inc. (25%) and ExxonMobil (35%), which is Block Operator, also have participating interests

Acknowledging that oil exploration agreements he signed with two start-up private operators within the two week-period in the run up to the last general elections look “suspicious,” former president Donald Ramotar says negotiations had started long before.

“I know it looks suspicious but I thought we would have won the elections anyhow and that it was just the continuation of an already started process from 2013,” Ramotar told Sunday Stabroek in an interview last week.

“If the election wasn’t stolen from us, we would have continued along the same trajectory with the same companies, so there was nothing sinister about those signings,” he added.