Oil giant ExxonMobil has refuted claims from the Opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), that it told them during a meeting that an agreement had been reached with the Government to lower disputed cost oil claims from US$214 million to US$3 million.
During a press conference on Tuesday, ExxonMobil Guyana President Alistair Routledge made it clear that all his company did, when it met with the Opposition as a courtesy, was explain that they were in the process of seeking a reduction of those costs.
According to Routledge, Exxon met with the Opposition during that meeting of September 8, as part of the company’s open-door policy and desire to engage across the political spectrum and with other stakeholders. But he stressed that at no time did they inform the Opposition an agreement had been reached to lower the costs.
“What I provided by way of commentary to the leadership of the Opposition… is that we have been going through this process as described, with the working level of the Ministry. And we believe we provided the documentation to substantially reduce the queries that were (highlighted) from the initial draft audit. And that it was at that sort of level.”
“We did not have any formal agreement with the Ministry and indeed, as the Ministry and the Vice President made clear, there is the expectation that the GRA is the ultimate authority. So, to be clear, I did describe the process to the Opposition. But I did not say we had reached final agreement that was authorised by the GRA or the Ministry,” Routledge said.
Routledge also provided some clarity over who Exxon was interfacing with on the Government side when they were having discussions on the cost oil audit and a potential reduction of the queries. According to the Exxon Executive, Senior Petroleum Coordinator Gopnauth “Bobby” Gossai at the Natural Resources Ministry, was Exxon’s most senior contact point on the audit.
“Under the agreement, the Ministry is the contact point. But as the Government has made clear, they want the GRA to be the point of contact. So that’s who we’re now working with,” Routledge explained. In fact, Routledge revealed that GRA has reached out to them asking for records to support its queries on the cost oil sum flagged in the audit. Failure to do so may lead to arbitration.
According to Routledge, during his time interfacing with them, Gossai had been asking Exxon to provide documentation. However, the company was not aware of who immediately reviewed those documents once they were provided. He noted, however, that Exxon was under the impression that the Ministry was basically serving as the intermediary between Exxon and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
Routledge also expressed regret that Gossai may face disciplinary action, noting that the company worked directly with Gossai and the technical people under him. According to Routledge, however, if there is a Police investigation into the Petroleum Coordinator, Exxon will cooperate as it usually does in any foreign jurisdiction it operates.
“I feel very sorry for Mr Gossai. I feel he has been somewhat caught in the middle and was working diligently and in support of the process. Unfortunately, the right (documents) haven’t got to the right people and he has been left carrying that… I think he has worked diligently and with the best of intent,” Routledge told the media.
The Government had announced that a full probe would be launched into who negotiated for a reduction of the US$214 million sum that was initially flagged in 2019 by British firm IHS Markit when it did an audit of ExxonMobil’s cost oil expenses racked up between 1999 and 2017 from its operations in Guyana.
Following the audit on the cost oil claims, GRA had supported this sum and on August 8, had even written to the Natural Resources Ministry indicating it’s no objection to the US$214 million in cost oil claims that was flagged by the British auditing firm.
However, it was subsequently disclosed last month that staff from the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Petroleum Department had reportedly engaged the US oil company and reduced the US$214 million figure to US$11 million and then subsequently to US$3 million.
At a press conference, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had contended that the Government was under the impression that the reduced US$3 million, which he previously disclosed publicly, was determined by GRA – the technical body appointed as its sole advisor to review these audits.
