Opinion
How was the signing bonus calculated?
In relation to the newest Ranger-1 well announced a few days ago, it was said in an SN article: “It has more than 230-ft of high-quality, oil bearing carbonate reservoir which is now being described as the single largest find in the (Stabroek) Block. Questions may well be asked as to why the Ranger site…
The signing bonus could have been around US$238 million
Late last year the Wall Street Journal reported that Brazil received US$1.88 billion in signing bonuses for six exploration blocks during a process of competitive auctioning. Chad in 2001 received US$25 million in a signing bonus for sour crude oil with lower viscosity compared with Guyana’s high quality sweet crude. Signing bonuses are also paid…
Govt’s oil negotiators sold out Guyana for trinkets
The notion of the STATE sharing the production of oil and gas with companies as part of a commercial enterprise was first developed in Bolivia in the 1950s. Today it is widely used in over 40 countries, so the Government of Guyana cannot claim that the unavailability of international experts to advise it was the…
Guyana deserves higher share of oil profit
The Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) that Guyana has with ExxonMobil is fraught with opportunities for abuse. In fact, these very loopholes could result in a significant dent in the revenue Guyana is supposed to get from the oil find by the operator. This was noted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a report that…
Exxon pact should be rejigged to give 7% royalty –Goolsarran
Former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran says that the agreement between Guyana and ExxonMobil should be renegotiated to give this country a royalty of 7% on oil produced instead of the current 2% and he also said that there should be a switch from a profit-sharing arrangement to a revenue-sharing one. See more here
Minister Trotman’s statement on the negotiations is at odds with the preamble to the agreement
If one is to believe Mr. Trotman then it means that the Preamble to the Agreement is false and misleading. On the other hand, if the Preamble is accurate, then we have Mr. Trotman once again lying to the country. See more here
Why is Exxon exempted from paying corporation etc tax?
A contract was signed in June 2016 between the coalition government, ExxonMobil and its partners in the Stabroek block. Why did this contract dealing with the exploitation of the nation’s natural resources remain a secret for over a year? This does not augur well for the future transparency of the oil industry. In Article 15…
Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded
In keeping with a recent undertaking, the Government of Guyana yesterday released the Petroleum Agreement entered into on its behalf by Mr. Raphael Trotman with American oil companies Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited and Hess Guyana Exploration Limited and CNOOC NEXEN Production Guyana Limited, from China. The Agreement is dated 27 June 2016 and…
Corporate Tax must be paid by Exxon
Dear Editor, Quote from the December 24th Sunday Stabroek news report: “A key finding of the report after assessing similar PSAs from around the world is that the Stabroek PSA has the lowest Average Effective Tax Rate (AETR) of “government take”.
Oil agreement generous to Exxon – IMF team
Cost Recovery limit The report said that PSAs here limit the value of production (after royalty) that can be used to recover costs. The mission says it understands that the cost recovery limit in the Stabroek PSA is fixed at 75 percent. “When there is a cost recovery limit and the minimum government share is…