A recent comment by Former President Donald Ramotar about the need for a renegotiation of the Exxon contract, appears to have irritated President Irfaan Ali.
Mr. Ramotar who served as President under a previous PPP Civic administration from 2011 to 2015 has indicated that had he been heading the Government, he would have pushed and gotten a renegotiation of the oil deal signed between the Exxon company and the Government under the APNU+AFC administration.
While addressing a Canada- Guyana Chamber of Commerce event this past weekend, President Irfaan Ali made reference to a number of persons including a former President, becoming overnight specialists on oil and gas matters.
“You think that is how you change a contract? you have an existing contract; you think that is how it happens and that is how the world operates? That you walk in one day and decide that I had this contract with you and I am changing it now—One lawsuit. This is not play thing, and some of these guys were policy makers” an irate, President Ali said.
The President said he has become tired of listening to some of the comments about the oil contracts, especially from people who he said should know better.
“That is why we were very careful to say that we have to learn from the mistake and ensure that future contracts do not make the same mistake and that is what we have done, and that is what we are doing,” the President said.
The President said waking up and deciding to change the oil contract arbitrarily, will have investors questioning whether to invest in Guyana.
“You think the sophisticated investor would look at you and just say you look good we are coming to invest, they look at your systems, that is why the IMF report spoke so extensively about the reforms and the system, but everybody wants to be on the front page now,” the President said.
Guyana late last year updated its model for future petroleum agreements. The proposed regime includes 10% royalty, 65% cost recovery limit, 10% petroleum tax and 50:50 profit sharing ratio among others.
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