A nation without monthly oil production reports – Ram
Attorney-in-law, Christopher Ram.
Kaieteur News – Thirteen months into oil production, the nation should be receiving monthly updates on the status of oil production in the Stabroek Block, and other details. ExxonMobil has a mandate to report this information to the government, but Guyana does not know what the government knows.
These and other comments were shared by attorney-at-law attorney and anti-corruption advocate Christopher Ram during Kaieteur Radio – The Glenn Lall Show, Monday night.
He said the government should have a monthly production report detailing how much crude oil is produced, as well as natural gas.
This is because the agreement signed with ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC for the Stabroek Block arrangements requires full disclosures on operations therein.
“The government would have received at least 11 [of the monthly production] statements, ”said Ram.
“[But] we don’t know any of these things … We don’t know what the government knows. ”
Ram noted that the lack of monthly production statements from the government is part of a broader issue of information, which should be shared with the public who is kept under wrapping.
This applied to the discourse on Monday night, when Kaieteur News publisher Glenn Lall and Ram were discussing the gas-to-shore project. Concerns about a possible future over supply of natural gas are what prompted Ram to note that the public should receive regular reports about the amount of connected gas coming up from Liza’s well.
Historically, public disclosures of documents and information related to the petroleum industry have come after sustained calls for their release, and criticism from the press. If they had been shared publicly without being called out by the media, those disclosures would not have been consistent. This is the case with the monthly production statements.
When oil production began in December 2019, the public received oil production reports, which also included the revenue received during that month from royalties and sales of the crude. The Ministry of Finance was the agency responsible for producing them.
“Regular publication of the [report] it will allow for greater transparency in this new sector of the economy, ”the Finance Ministry said in announcing the reports,“ ensuring that the public is fully aware of the amount of petroleum being generated and the revenue which is produced. Such transparency is important, given the volume of revenue generated from this resource. “
A few of these reports were produced and published but the regular publications weakened during the election saga. They did not resume when the new administration took over in August. The Ministry of Finance website has been down for weeks, as it gets a makeover.