Dear Editor,
Please allow me to comment on a letter published (4 March 2024) and given generous coverage in another local newspaper. The gist of the letter is that the 2% royalty paid to Guyana with respect to oil production in the Stabroek Block is calculated by ExxonMobil Guyana Ltd. as 2% of its profits and not, as required by the production sharing agreement, 2% of the total amount of oil produced and sold. To support this claim, the writer provided a screen shot of the company’s statement of profit and loss for the year ended 31 December 2022 which depicts a royalty expenditure of G$18,892,021,213 for that year. This amount contrasts starkly with the amount of G$32,349,868,000 reported as royalty inflows in the 2022 Natural Resource Fund Annual Report to which the writer failed to refer. I believe there’s a perfectly logical explanation for these seemingly contradictory figures. I fear such an explanation may clash with the rationale provided by the author of that letter.
Sincerely,
Dominic Gaskin
