By Svetlana Marshall

Maintaining that no agreement was reached with the Government on the US$214M in “unjustified claims” flagged by IHS Markit in the conduct of the Stabroek Block Cost Recovery Audit, President of ExxonMobil Guyana Limited, Alistair Routledge, today said the Government, through the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), has reengaged the UK based audit firm, to assess the supporting documents that have been provided by ExxonMobil.

It was the Opposition that recently stated that during a meeting in September, ExxonMobil indicated that the Government had agreed to reduce the US$214M in “unjustified” claims to just over US$3M.

But the ExxonMobil Guyana President while acknowledging the meeting with the Opposition, denied that the company indicated that it reached an agreement with the Government.

“I did describe the process to the opposition but I did not say we agreed to a final agreement that was authorized by the GRA or the ministry,” he told reporters during a press conference at Exxon’s Kingston Office today.

Maintaining that there is no dispute, but rather a request for additional documentation based on queries made by IHS Markit in the draft audit report, Mr. Routledge said the company has documentations to support the majority of the “queries.” According to him, those supporting documents cover more than 90% of the claims flagged in the audit report.

However, he said sourcing the documents is no easy task as the audit dates back to more than 20 years, and a change in government and technical personnel.

“Not only does it cover a period that goes back more than 20 years ago but also, the process of that audit, kicked off several years ago. In fact, under a different administration when we also had the Department of Energy, and then there was the hiatus period and then into this government, and its administration has been overseeing the latter stages of the process,” he told reporters.

Routledge explained that in keeping with the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), Exxon communicated directly with the Ministry of Natural Resources on the Cost Recovery Audit, however, it was not until recently that it was informed that the GRA is the authority on the matter.

“Under the agreement, the ministry is officially the contact point but as the government has made clear, they want the GRA to be the point of contact, and so, that’s who we are now working with,” he said.

He said GRA has since requested additional documents, and has also re-engaged IHS Markit based on a correspondence received from the Government last week.

Routledge said as the “query” process continues, Exxon will continue to defend the entire US$1.678B in costs that it intends to recover for exploration works done between 1999 and 2017.

“These are valid costs; it’s a question of finding the documentation,” he said.

He said while it is normal to have queries during an audit, the delay in the audit spanning more than 20 years has made it difficult to source the documents.  

“And remember, we are talking documentations that stretches back more than 20 years. So, we have had to go through archive boxes and things of that nature to find the right pieces of paper to provide documentation and support of those expenses,” he explained.

Given the challenges being experienced in this ongoing audit, the oil company’s president said it is important to have audits done in a timely manner in keeping with the regular audit cycle.

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