Ram is right

Aug 31, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – We agree with Chartered Accountant, Chris Ram, that Guyana receiving more money as its share of Profit Oil does not make the 2016 ExxonMobil oil contract a fair deal. ExxonMobil has a trump card in exploration expenses, which could cover many hundreds of US millions, gouge deeply into Guyana’s now higher profit share. The company has the greatest say in what exploration expenses are. Then, there is the unknown of war, which is usually not controlled by any corporate power, including ExxonMobil. The end of the war centered around the Strait of Hormuz should lead to lower oil prices. Lower oil prices mean a lower profit take for Guyana, with the higher rate factored in. In effect, the ExxonMobil 2016 oil deals remains a bad deal for Guyana. More profits do not change that reality.

Executives of ExxonMobil have pretended that their clever handiwork, the lopsided 2016 Production Sharing Agreement, is a great oil deal for Guyana, and that it is off the renegotiation table. The contract is so ironclad, so perfect in its construction, yet ExxonMobil has still found it necessary to engage the Government of Guyana, when an advantage or benefit is sought. The same, however, is not allowed to Guyana. If ever there was an oil contract that stands as a model for corporate predation, it is the ExxonMobil-Guyana 2016 oil contract. On its own terms, the contract is vileness and an obscenity, of the lowest order.