…cockeyed at oil contract
Your Eyewitness is informed that Sherwood Lowe’s a lecturer at UG. So he’ll take into account the turmoil he must be undergoing with the bow-tied megalomaniac in charge of the place that Cheddi founded. Anyhow, Lowe waded in on the oil contract Trotman “renegotiated” with ExxonMobil – probably taking to heart the point made by one columnist that all Guyanese must make oil their business!
Lowe claims most of the critics are being “simplistic” and, worse of all, “politically” inflected, so it’s only fair that we subject his claims to the same metrics. On his very first point, Lowe says “oil exploration is a high risk venture”!! Well duh! None of the critics ever said it wasn’t…and is in fact the reason there’s been no criticism of the original contract signed by Janet Jagan back in 1999.
Then, only the US Geological Survey – utilising satellite imaging data – suggested we had huge oil and gas reserves off our shores. Jagan certainly didn’t know about that…but we can suspect the US oil companies had some idea. Asymmetry of information in the oil company’s favour – so Jagan can be excused her one per cent royalty and other expansive terms. Folks had been looking for oil in Guyana for a century – unsuccessfully.
But fast forward to 2016…and this is the elephant in the room Lowe ignores. Leading to the suspicion he’s politically inflecting his analysis to give Trotman and the Government a free pass. When Trotman insisted on sitting across the table from the high-priced Texas lawyers without any advisors of consequence – kinda like playing “Texas holdem” without even learning the rules! – OIL HAD ALREADY BEEN STRUCK!!
There was no risk involved then!! Of course, the oil company had sunk some serious cash to get to that oil at Lisa 1…but it wasn’t going to walk away if Trotman had demanded terms more in keeping with present day circumstances. Why did he throw in his hand? If he’d done some basic background checks, he’d have known the oil major had just walked away from Arctic and tarsands of Alberta reserves. Its book reserves had dipped precipitously and stockholders were getting skittish.
Trotman basically gave the store away when he didn’t have to…and that’s what the angst in Guyana is all about. No one can blame Exxon…they’re not Oxfam!! They’re mandated to maximise shareholders equity. They did what they had to do…and it’s not “robbery” as one of Lowe’s UG ex-colleague rudely claimed. But then that fellow’s has “robbery” on his brain!!
What your Eyewitness would advise is Lowe should acknowledge that the guiding mantra in these matters is “caveat emptor”. Buyer beware!!
Which Trotman still ignores.
…at Lindo Creek massacres
Your Eyewitness is thrown for a loop that in addition to announcing there will be MULTIPLE COI’s into Crime in Guyana – the PNC Government’s gone and said they’ll start with the Lindo creek murders.
Now even if they were keeping with their 2002-2009 timeline for the high crimes CoI’s, why start from the end, 2008 – which is when Lindo creek took place? Shouldn’t they follow Julie Andrews’ advice and ‘start at the very beginning”? Such an approach at least acknowledges the Bibical observation that things ‘beget” other things.
Lindo Creek didn’t just occur out of the blue…there were antecedent incidents that might explain it differently from the fella who witnessed it. Did he commit perjury in his sworn statement to a court of law? That fella insisted it was Fineman’s gang – of which he was a member – that did the dirty deed.
Your Eyewitness feels the begetting of the crime wave began with the PNC protests when they refused to accept the December 1997 elections results.
Why don’t we start there?
…at the border controversy
The DPI claimed the Venezuelan border controversy began in “the 19th century”. No it DIDN’T!! That’s when the full and final Award was given.
The controversy was created in 1962 when Venezuela told the UN the above settlement was “null and void”! What a dope!!
