Caribbean L 12 ife, May 31–June 6, 2019 BQ
Guyana starts corruption probe
anywhere else in the world.
Only two have come up dry
so far.
Retemeyer told this
publication that two companies
— JHI Associates
of Toronto, Canada and
Mid Atlantic Oil and Gas
of Guyana — were formed
only in the past five years
and are not known as oil
producers anywhere else
on the globe. “Yet they
were handed the blocks
without any public auction,
without parliamentary
oversight as the house
was dissolved to facilitate
general elections. There
were no consultations with
the opposition. There was
also no signing bonus. We
have to find out what laws
were breached here and
whether there was corruption,”
Retemeyer said.
He said that despite official
denials, the PPP knew
oil was found as it had run
a full page advertisement
in local newspapers a few
days before the May 11,
2015 elections announcing
that Guyana had found oil
and encouraging voters to
give it an additional fiveyear
term. It lost the elections
to a coalition led by
retired army general David
Granger.
He said SARA’s probe so
far has shown that Exxon
has bought into both companies
and has become
the main operator as these
firms were small, have no
big assets nor any major
history in the sector to
boast about.
Worse yet, the Canje and
Kaieteur blocks are in the
ultra deep portions of the
Guyana Basin. Only companies
like Exxon, British
Petroleum and a few others
have the technology
and ability to work in such
deep waters. Yet these were
given to unknown firms.
“Therefore, it is astonishing
that these two
unknown companies were
awarded blocks. The timing
is significant. We want
to be able to answer the
questions nationally. After
all, Exxon had derisked the
basin. If the then government
had held on to these
blocks or had auctioned
them off, the country
would have gotten billions
of dollars. Something does
not add up here. We will
drill deep to find out what
happened.”
SARA said Exxon and
Total of France as well as
Ratio Oil, an Israeli company
moved quickly to buy
into the blocks without
having to pay any signing
bonuses. Guyana got $18
million as a bonus for the
Stabroek Block, a figure
that was roundly criticized
in Guyana.
Company spokeswoman,
Deedra Moe has said
that Exxon “followed all
applicable laws and regulations
in acquiring its government
approved license”
and would cooperate fully
with authorities.
SARA said it will look
at the movement of Exxon’s
stock around the
time these two companies
became major players in
Guyana and will also go
over its annual report and
stockholder information to
see if there were any spikes
that coincided with that
period
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