Acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire has declared that Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd (Hess) and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Ltd (Nexen), do not need separate environmental licenses to conduct oil production here since they are covered under the licence issued to ExxonMobil’s local subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (Esso).
The Chief Justice made this declaration in a ruling handed down yesterday afternoon to a challenge which had been brought by political commentator Ramon Gaskin, whose argument has been that since the two companies—Hess and Nexen had no environmental permits allowing them to engage in oil exploration here, they ought not to have been granted any petroleum production licences.
He had been seeking orders from the court to so reflect. However, his application was denied.
