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For­mer prime min­is­ter and en­er­gy min­is­ter Stu­art Young has chal­lenged claims made by the Gov­ern­ment dur­ing yes­ter­day’s sign­ing of the Pro­duc­tion Shar­ing Con­tract (PSC) with Exxon­Mo­bil for Block TTUD-1.

Young said the deal was ini­ti­at­ed by the pre­vi­ous Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) gov­ern­ment, ex­plain­ing, “It was the PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion that en­gaged Exxon­Mo­bil and com­menced the ne­go­ti­a­tions for the ul­tra deep wa­ter blocks with them. In fact, it was pos­si­ble for us to have ap­proved the PSC terms pri­or to the April 28 elec­tion but we de­cid­ed not to rush it.”

He crit­i­cised the cur­rent Gov­ern­ment tak­ing full cred­it for the arrange­ment, adding, “So, the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion has done very lit­tle to noth­ing to com­plete this deal.”