Introduction
As promised last week, today’s column and the next two are devoted to an overdue discussion of the notion of “working interest” as this is freely applied when referring to the grouping or consortium of the three oil companies leading the exploration and production of Guyana’s hydrocarbons in the prolific Stabroek Block. These are ExxonMobil [operating through its local subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, EEPGL], Hess Guyana Exploration Limited, and CNOOC Corporation. Over the years, in these columns I have routinely used one of two alternative expressions to capture this entity; namely, ExxonMobil and partners, or ExxonMobil and co-ventures.
On reflection I admit that, for some readers this has been somewhat confusing. Especially as I firmly contend the noise and nonsense in the social and print media have contributed a great deal to the prevailing confusion, even though by no measure is this the only source of confusion. Two fallacious assertions can be identified in the noise and nonsense analysis.
