Dear Editor,
When new oil discoveries are announced, should Guyanese jump for joy or should we wail and lament that rapacious foreign neocolonial corporations will ship away the bulk of the benefits and leave the Guyanese people with crumbs? Whatever the amount of oil we have or regardless of how much oil is discovered, of every 100 barrels, Guyana gets only 15 barrels and the oil companies get 85 barrels. Editor, is this a fair deal? It is so sad that both our Government and Opposition are in bed with the oil imperialists against their own people. These two parties used to be anti-imperialists and working class. Now they watch out for the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie and lend their feet to oil companies with their boots on the necks of the Guyanese people. Can you imagine our PPP Government which said it will renegotiate the contract but did not do so, is defending this rotten deal in court and fighting for the bad taxation clauses of the contract against Mr. Glenn Lall?
It is sad when your own Government betrays the people of Guyana. And not to be outdone, the Opposition guy denies he ever used the word “renegotiation.” Is it true he met with Exxon in a recent visit to the USA? In January 2022, there was a headline, “ExxonMobil discovers more oil off Guyana’s coast.” Last week, the headline was “Exxon triple discoveries catapult Guyana resource base to almost 11 billion barrels.” Then there was a headline, “Pace of Guyana’s oil and gas development ‘unprecedented’ – Routledge.” So, when the headline says the new discoveries “catapult” Guyana’s resource base, it does not catapult the 2% royalty. The royalty stays the same. And we remain a “rich country of poor people” as our President likes to describe us. New discoveries mean profits galore for the oil barons, but misery and poverty for our country that gets a pittance from the large pool of income.
This is a country that does not have the basic facilities to test for cyanide when people die of suspected cyanide poisoning. Although we had a big cyanide spill in the mining industry, it does not appear as if we developed capacity to test for cyanide. The list of national needs remains long and unmet. So, when big oil discoveries are announced, and there will be many more such announcements, it is a big pay day for the stockholders of Exxon, HESS and CNOOC. The oil companies are salivating and celebrating about huge profits to come. For Guyanese, it is an ongoing sadness and lamentation, because poor people will never become rich, under the current system. It behooves us as a people to not rest until both the Government and the Opposition come together to fight for a better oil deal than we have now. Let’s push our unions, churches, NGOs and civil society groups to come together and change this rotten oil deal. Wake up Guyana!
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
