Chris Ram
Chris Ram
Chris Ram discusses the flaws in the oil contracts
The presentation slides can be found here: http://www.oggn.website/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/chris_ram_oggn_event_20190601.pdf
The Case for Renegotiation
Introduction This is the case for renegotiation of the Petroleum Agreements between the Government of Guyana and ExxonMobil (“Guyana-Exxon agreements”). In my article dated 8 December 2017[1], I wrote extensively on the nature and types of stability clauses and their pros and cons. Most notably, what the Model Petroleum Contract describes as a Stability Clause…
Ambassador Holloway’s Mathematical Misstep: Unraveling the Numbers
Every Man, Woman and Child Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 67) Introduction “You couldn’t do the math”, said Ambassador Perry Holloway in his interview with reporters published in Stabroek News last Tuesday December 9, 2018 as he exhorted us Guyanese to educate ourselves about the fortune coming our way from ExxonMobil’s oil. Let us allow the…
The Loan Conundrum: Questions Surrounding Oil and Gas Governance Funding
Every Man, Woman and Child Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 66) Introduction Mr. David Patterson, Minister of Public Infrastructure, offered a commendably prompt but strange response to last week’s column by way of his December 8 letter to the editor “The 2019 budgetary allocation has nothing to do with natural gas”. Strange because Mr. Patterson appears to…
Mapping the Gas Bubble: Patterson’s Folly
Every Man, Woman and Child Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 65) Introduction Today’s column carries out a commitment I made in a letter earlier this week responding to a statement by Mr. David Patterson, Minister of Public Infrastructure appearing in the last Sunday Stabroek. Patterson reports that a Dutch company will be undertaking an ocean floor…
Unveiling the Financial Puzzle: Dissecting Pre-Production Costs and Revenue Projections in Guyana’s Oil Sector
Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 64) Introduction Figures contained in the 2017 financial statements of Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited indicate that the three-party set up of Esso, Hess and CNOOC Nexen will spend well over five hundred billion dollars ($500,000,000,000) up to December 2019. The three companies…
Double Standards in Contracts: The Bridge Debacle vs. ExxonMobil’s Petroleum Agreement
Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 63) Introduction It has been nearly a month since the last column appeared on October 19 under the title Complex for the White Man, Disdain for Locals. Recent developments have lent an aura of prescience about that column as we witnessed and contrasted the…
Ministerial Disregard: Foreign Enthusiasm, Local Contempt in Guyana’s Oil Sector
Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 62) Introduction During the recently-concluded United Nations General Assembly in New York, USA, the Guyana Delegation led by Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge facilitated a meeting between the Governor of the Bank of Guyana and representatives of Merrill Lynch, the investment arm of the Bank…