Recently, the number and prominence of foreign analysts who have corroborated the early view expressed by local analysts have increased. This is the view that the contract is heavily weighted against Guyana. Two of these foreign analysts have been OpenOil and the IMF. Yet, there is one aspect of the consideration of how bad a…
The oil contract contains a loophole that may tempt the oil companies to get around the 14.25% of revenues minimum limit cited by some analysts. The only guarantee is the 2% royalty, but the 50%/50% profit share can be exploited such that Guyana’s average take is less than 14.25% in earlier periods. On April 1st, 2018…
We explored the idea of the resource curse in six previous columns before analysing the cost aspects of the oil and gas contract. We took a break from this topic in the previous three successive essays. Last week’s essay looked at how recurring costs could have an interesting effect on the long-term average cost oil…
Concerns from Aug 14, 2016: Ralph Ramkarran, in his article in SN of August 7, 2016 ‘Guyana’s future as an oil producer’, estimates that Guyana can expect revenues of US$5.5 billion a year from the recent Liza oil discovery by ExxonMobil and partners. Ramkarran uses three variables to arrive at his figure: an oil price…
By now many Guyanese would have heard about the 14.25% effective royalty, which combines the 2% actual royalty enshrined in the contract, the 50-50% profit share and the 75% cost-recovery cap. According to Article 11 of the Petroleum Agreement between the Guyana government and ExxonMobil subsidiaries, the cap on cost recovery is monthly. This…
