Comparing a prospecting contract to that of a production one is absurd, former attorney general Anil Nandlall says in response to the government’s inclusion of the requirement for seven days’ notice to the contractor if it wants to visit the offshore oil operations of ExxonMobil.
Nandlall says that a prospecting contract always weighs in favour of the prospector and Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman is just making excuses for ExxonMobil’s 2016 Production Sharing Agreement that he signed to.
“Prospecting contracts by their very nature are normally favourable to the prospector because it’s the prospector that is expected to put out the requisite investments and expenditures in pursuit of the prospecting. And therefore, the contracts are very generous in favour of the prospector and any good attorney knows that,” Nandlall said yesterday.
