The ExxonMobil company is not supportive of many of the new measures contained in the updated draft Production Sharing Agreement, which the Government intends to use for all future oil contracts.

At a press conference today, the President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge, told reporters that his company does not intend to sign onto the new PSA in its present form, citing issues with a number of the new measures.

Exxon is one of the companies that recently made a bid in the Government’s oil blocks auction. 

“When it comes to the other terms, the new PSA had substantially different terms, many of which we found to be less attractive and so, a lot of our feedback in the consultation process and subsequently in our proposal for our bid includes feedback on the terms, other than the fiscal terms. The time periods for relinquishments. Can you really in deep water or even in the shadow water move that quickly to acquire contract, acquire data, process data, make decisions and move on to the next phase. It is an extremely short period. So, we thing that is challenging,” the ExxonMobil President explained.

According to the draft model PSA, the contractor will be required to submit an annual work programme to the Minister responsible for the energy sector for approval.

Within a period of 45 days, the Minister is expected to decide on the future of the proposed work Programmes, which must contain a detailed list of the individual activities that the contractor plan to conduct, the estimated expenditure, and the estimated time for each of the activities.

But the Exxon Mobil Guyana President believes the Minister holds excessive power under the new PSA.

“The minister has an awful lot of control in the new PSA. There a lot of approvals require under the new PSA. Quite honestly today, I don’t think the Ministry is set up to process, review and to exercise those even if they are the right authority to do that,” he said.

Routledge said while the company has submitted a bid for one of the new oil blocks, it is not prepared to sign onto the new PSA as it currently stands.

Meanwhile, the oil giant is not intimidated by Venezuela’s recent statements concerning oil exploration in Guyana.

“We have not been scared away by Venezuela, that’s why we are still working in Guyana; that’s why we continue to do so for decades to come,” the EMGL President told reporters at a press conference today.

 Venezuela has been laying claim to Guyana’s territory and maritime space for decades. Guyana has rejected those claims.

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