Coalition blames PPP/C for hiring “tainted” Canadian for Payara review

Despite committing several blunders in under a one year span during their tenure, the now Opposition APNU+AFC administration has blasted the governing regime with an “F+” grade for the hiring of “controversial and tainted” Canadian consultant, Alison Redford, for ExxonMobil’s Payara Field Development Plan (FDP).
In its “PPP Report Card, 100 DAYS OF FAILURE,” the Opposition pointed out 100 examples of how the government failed, including “appointing controversial and tainted Canadian to review oil contract.”
However, Kaieteur News can point to key instances where the Coalition, too, erred during their tenure in office.

Before Redford was handpicked to review the Payara FDP, the Coalition had awarded the contract to UK-based firm, Bayphase Oil and Gas Consultants.
Kaieteur News had reported, however, that the company was not only a client of ExxonMobil but even a number of its primary contractors working in Guyana.
Bayphase is not only a client of ExxonMobil but it is also contracted by NEXEN, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and also works for Exxon’s subcontractors which include Schlumberger and Technip FMC.

Not only that. This paper had showed too , that Bayphase never gave any unflattering report on its clients. It should be noted that when the Energy Department head, Dr. Mark Bynoe, was asked whether concerns linger over the connection between the two companies, he answered in the negative.
His reasoning was that it would be difficult to find any potential reviewer for development plans, which did not have a prior affiliation with an operator.

Added to this, the coalition hired US Law firm, Hunton Andrew Kurth, to revise Guyana’s antique petroleum legislation. But that firm shared a solid relationship with ExxonMobil spanning 40 years.
The US$1.2 million bill was set to be financed by the World Bank – the very financial institution, which pledged not to fund activities related to the oil and gas industry.
An article from The Guardian revealed that Hunton Andrews Kurth has acted for ExxonMobil for 40 years, while noting that it has worked on multiple cases for the oil giant, some of which were in relation to climate impacts.

It was only after Kaieteur News made this exposure, that the firm disclosed it dropped the contract to rewrite Guyana’s outdated laws.
Further on, the APNU+AFC Coalition brought in Trinidad and Tobago Local Content Expert, Anthony Paul, to prepare Guyana’s policy. Prior to handing the reins of the oil and gas sector to the Ministry of the Presidency, Paul had already created two drafts.
But when the then Department of Energy was formed and took control of local content efforts, the policy was not completed by the T&T expert.
Instead, the Coalition chose UK Local Content Consultant, Dr. Michael Warner to complete the final policy.

This newspaper would have exposed, on several occasions, Dr. Warner’s ties to ExxonMobil, as well as the fact that he has never independently produced a policy for any country.
When Paul had completed the second draft of Guyana’s Local Content Policy back in May 2018, several provisions were included to ensure preferential treatment of locals.

According to Paul, those provisions were inserted, taking into account, some of the mistakes his country would have made on the issue of local content. But when the final draft was completed, Dr. Michael Warner had removed key provisions that put Guyanese first. Kaieteur News was able to identify same, after comparing the second draft with the one that Paul did.

The Trinidadian’s draft policy was the only one that is in conformity with a report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which called for tax breaks for local companies and joint ventures between locals and foreign suppliers, among other things. Dr. Warner’s draft policy is essentially, in complete defiance of the UNDP’s recommendations.