Amid continuing concerns here about whether it has been legally bound to full insurance and compensation for any oil spill here , ExxonMobil’s affiliate Esso Exploration and Pro-duction Guyana Limited (EEGPL) yesterday said that while such an occurrence is highly unlikely here, the company and partners will not shun their responsibility.
The company also wanted to make it clear that the US$2 billion insurance sum for the Liza developments in the Stabroek Block is not to be used for cleanup in the event of a spill, but rather, is a package of affiliate company guarantees that goes directly to this country, in the “highly unlikely” event that resources from EEPGL, Hess and CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation) are totally depleted.
“EEPGL and the other co-venturers are responsible if a spill happens, and we’ll act as quickly as possible to address any environmental incident. In our view, the fact that we’re a world-class operator, makes a major spill very unlikely. But if one were to occur, we have the financial and technical resources to address it,” Vice President and Business Services Manager, Phillip Rietema, yesterday told a media roundtable discussion.
