Dr. Bynoe’s justification of oil sale in favour of companies not country – Jagdeo

Former President and People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, is of the view that Energy Head, Dr. Mark Bynoe’s stance on a series of issues within the oil sector is in favour of oil companies and not Guyana.

During a press conference yesterday, Jagdeo highlighted a number of actions made by the Department of Energy that does not support the welfare of Guyana’s Oil industry.
Dr. Bynoe had provided a justification for the decision to engage a selected group of companies for face-to-face bidding on Guyana’s oil.

According to Jagdeo, the Government is without right to engage in what he called a “secret process.” The opposition leader said that if elected, the party intends to sell Guyana’s oil through an “open public tendering” process.

Alluding to a Bloomberg article that announced the Government’s face-to-face bidding process, he said that such a process limits the amount of tenders received and leaves room for enormous amounts of corruption.
The opposition leader asserted that Guyana’s share of crude should be sold by ExxonMobil.

“They are a publicly-traded company. They can’t tamper with the price and we can verify the price that they receive for their crude.” Jagdeo asserted.

A few weeks ago, Bloomberg had informed Guyanese and the rest of the world that the Government of Guyana was taking an “unusual” approach for the sale of its share of the Stabroek Block oil.

Jagdeo also warned that companies who enter into arrangements with the present government under the “face-to-face” bidding system for the purchase of oil, would be excluded from future public tenders, should his party secure a victory in the upcoming General and Regional Elections.
He emphasized that it is within the government’s right to blacklist companies who knowingly participate in corruption.

Jagdeo further spoke on the government’s decision that oil companies will face no penalties if they are found to overstate recoverable costs.

“In any situation, there should be a penalty as a deterrent. But, (Bynoe) says they will pay no penalty. I wonder if he works for us or the companies.” he is quoted as saying.

Dr. Bynoe had previously stated that the Energy Department would simply refuse to pay overstatements, and that that would be the only action taken by Government to correct any misstatements when asked what actions would be taken if ExxonMobil overstates any of the costs included in the $10B it intends to recover for developmental works on the Stabroek Block’s Liza-1 and Liza-2 projects.