As the opposition awaits formal answers through Parliament on the funding of ExxonMobil’s local headquarters at Ogle, East Coast Demerara, the company’s Country Manager Alistair Routledge yesterday said that the approximately US$160 million project will be recovered from cost oil.
“It will be the operating centre for the offshore operations… it’s there solely in order to support the operation. So the costs will be recovered. And the cost recovery mechanism, that’s been clear all the way along with the previous administration and with the current administration, as we set up the project,” Routledge yesterday told a press conference the company held at its Kingston, Georgetown office.
Assuring that the $33 billion building would not be a palatial office, Rout-ledge said that spending is prudently being monitored to provide a fit-for-purpose and functional space. He informed that the company provides government with monthly updates, on the progress of works.
“It was budgeted [at] just under US$160 million, and it’s been benchmarked. And you know, we do have monthly reporting to the Minister of Natural Resources on the construction costs and benchmarking. It’s a very competitive one locally and even internationally, on efficiency of the development,” he said.
“It’s not going to be some, you know, some fancy [building with] lots of glass on the inside. This is a fit-for- purpose development, inside of a very functional [building] with all the technology,” he added.
Opposition Parliamentarian Ganesh Mahipaul has moved to the National Assembly for answers he says are owed to this country, regarding the project construction.
“ExxonMobil has begun construction of its new office campus on [a] 15 acre green field site adjacent to Ogle Airport on the outskirts of Georgetown, Guyana’s capital. The facility will be Exxon-Mobil’s in-country headquarters according to details revealed by the update on the 13th April, 2022 on LinkedIn. Can the Honourable Minister of Natural Resources inform the National Assembly if the cost for the ExxonMobil Office Campus is cost recoverable?” Mahipaul asked in questions he said he has since sent to Parliament.
“If yes to the above, can the Honourable Minister of Natural Resources inform this house what is the total cost for the ExxonMobil Office Campus and what real-time monitoring mechanisms are in place to ensure costing are not overpriced?” he added.
Mahipaul said that while he has used the National Assembly as the medium for the information to be released, and that he is an opposition MP, he wants the entire nation to set aside politics to assess the issue, since the monies earned from the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement “is for all of us.”
He posited that the populace should band together and review the issue and make their voices heard, “because this affects everyone; and opposition and government supporters will suffer, if not addressed.”
Routledge said that as per real-time monitoring mechanisms, an entire floor of one of the buildings will be dedicated for that purpose, a space on the property that government and its regulatory agencies can access also.
“One floor on one of the buildings will obviously totally be put aside to operating facilities including control rooms, monitoring facilities for the offshore operations connected by fibre optic. So it’s very much an integral part of the offshore operation,” he said.
“…The aim is that it’s there to ensure that we’re operating safely, reliably, optimizing the process at all times. But of course, you know, we’re always transparent with the government, they can come offshore at any time,” he added.
Through a sublease arrangement, ExxonMobil plans to construct its state-of-the art corporate headquarters on 10 acres of land leased to Ogle Airport Inc (OAI) by the Guyana Lands and Surveys Com-mission. Then Head of the National Secretariat of the Guyana Extractive Indus-tries Transparency Initia-tive, Dr Rudy Jadoopat, had in 2019 said that the organisation has not been privy to the cost of the agreement between Exxon-Mobil and OAI for the lease of land for the oil company’s corporate head office.
The company has said that the state-of-the-art campus will be constructed on a green field 15-acre site comprising two buildings, associated infrastructure and a net zero energy footprint. The plans also include the construction of a roadway as the designated site has no road access.
The 2024 completion target for the building remains on schedule.
