Overseas firm to advise on remaining oil blocks – Trotman

An international firm will advise the Guyana Government on how to market the country’s remaining unassigned oil blocks, according to Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman. “Cabinet has determined that an international firm will be retained to guide and advise that process going forward,” Trotman told Sunday Stabroek. “A short-list of capable firms is being compiled…

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ExxonMobil strangles Guyana with Stability Clause but has none with Ghana

Foreign companies often advocate the use of a “stability clause” in the quest for certainty of contractual provisions. This clause seeks to secure the oil contract and benefits therein for the oil operator, against future government action or changes in the law. Stabilization clauses freeze the essential provisions of the contract. Different countries have used…

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Could Guyana escape the natural resource curse? Part 5: economic research capacity and the oil contract

Making prediction in a complex and nonlinear world often involves identifying initial conditions and then sequentially reasoning (or solving) forward. One way of knowing how well Guyana will do with its newfound oil and gas resources is to consider the initial conditions that exist in the country today. In this column and future ones, I…

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Exxon contract final -Harmon

The controversial Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) signed between the government and ExxonMobil’s local subsidiary and partners is final and will not be subject to any changes, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said yesterday. “The President has said it—that we have dealt with the ExxonMobil contract and that we are not going back on it. It…

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Trotman must make the ExxonMobil contract public

I thank the Ministry of Natural Resources for a courteous response to my recent letter (‘Exxon’s environmental record does not bear scrutiny’ SN, March 8). However an assurance that the government is “carefully and assiduously” building the capacity of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Marine Administration Department and the Civil Defence Commission rather misses…

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What is downstream?

Downstream is the processing and selling of refined products in the oil and gas business. These products just do not include gasoline and diesel, but a whole gamut of products as outlined below. The “super majors” like ExxonMobil are involved in many elements of these processes as joint venture partners in hundreds of money-spinning projects. This…

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