Minister Bharrat’s disinformation on oil production rates unprincipled and dangerous

By Dr. Vincent Adams- I read without surprise, the August 10, 2024 KN clip “MP Vickram Bharrat provided misleading, deceptive information to Parliament on rate of oil production – David Patterson”. We all know that “misleading and deceptive” are parliamentary jargons for “lies”; but, in all fairness, let’s also charitably attribute some of the Honorable Minister’s mouthings to ignorance.

Ministers are expected to at least be responsible and competent enough to read and comprehend for themselves, matters of grave concerns to their people. Unfortunately, this Minister who is vested with the all-important safe keeping of the most hazardous operations in Guyana, i.e., oil & gas and mining, has carved out a record of lack of intellectual curiosity, incompetence, wimpiness, and don’t care a damn attitude about the health, safety and environment of the Guyanese people.

Besides his unseemliness plausibly called out by MP Patterson, this is the same man, who, in order to kowtow to Exxon, lied with his characteristic wry smile, that the Liza 1 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) allowed Exxon to freely flare up to 14 Billion cubic feet of gas, when in fact, nothing of the sort ever existed in the EIA which unequivocally ordains that flaring is prohibited.

This is also the same man who denied ditching of the 2019 World Bank Plan for rigorous oil & gas oversight with a highly specialized 36-member EPA Petroleum Unit, and the EPA Study Leave Policy sponsoring employees to pursue advanced studies for a five-year service in return.

However, the appearance of the Plan’s cover page in the media, forced his shameless about face lie that the Plan was still being executed, though, not a single position in that Plan has been filled; and despite his farce about full monitoring, there isn’t a single person with even one hour of training in oil & gas to understand or question the simplest of Exxon’s activities, thanks to his sabotage of the World Bank Plan and EPA Study Leave Policy.

Exxon no doubt takes full advantage of this impotence as they call the shots and get whatever they demand. They know they have caught a big big packoo and surely know what to do with it.

On top of that, the Minister continues to display his advanced stage of grandiose delusions and dishonesty, when he unabashedly tells the nation that “We have total transparency and accountability…and everybody likes what we are doing.”

Is this man insane, or just takes Guyanese for fools! Does he really think that “total transparency” means: hiding Exxon’s files in the EPA Director’s office away from all, including the staff; hiding the people’s own petroleum reserves from them; refusing to show the purported $2 Billion parent company guarantee deposit; that the Petroleum Commission should be made up of people from his Ministry, though they crucified former Minister Trotman for being entrusted with too much authority in his first Commission draft document; and refusing to make public, the Field Development Plans (FDP) under the insulting pretext that it is too complicated for Guyanese to understand.

I wish to advise that the Minister not judge others by his standards. May I also educate the Minister that there is something called the UN Escazú Agreement signed by Guyana in 2018 and ratified in 2019, obligating him to providing public access to such information like the FDPs.

Returning to Patterson’s exposure of Bharrat’s disinformation act, the safe oil limits set by Liza 1, Liza 2, and Payara EIAs, are 120,000 barrels oil per day (bopd), 220,000 bopd, and 220,000 bopd, respectively, totaling 560,000 bopd. However, the Minister acquiesces to the current rate of 650,000 bopd, soon to be upped to 708,000 bopd – a dangerous 26 % above the safe legal limit.

Taking Liza 1 for example, its EIA enshrines in vanilla plain language that it is “designed to safely operate at sustained peaks of 120,000 bopd”, but the Minister is hell bent on irresponsibly defending its dangerously illegal current rate of 163,000 bopd, which is 36% above the safe rate. Bharrat’s story is that the EIA’s safe limit is 144,000 bopd and not 120,000 bopd – a flat-out falsity. If Exxon believed his story, wouldn’t they have raised it during the Coalition’s time? The answer is a resounding NO! for Exxon knows that the Coalition would instantly see its wackiness.

For the Minister’s edification, that 144,000 bopd is a number exactly 20% (normally applied) above the 120,000 to model the estimated maximum air pollution emissions within a 20% accuracy, and has absolutely nothing to do with the production limit. This proves my earlier point that there is no one at the EPA who has any clue relative to these technical matters. In any case, shouldn’t Bharat’s math proficiency at least help him grasp that the current 163,000 bopd rate which he defends, still exceeds his fictitious 144,000 bopd that he claims to be the legal limit? The honorable Minister is therefore advised to keep his mouth shut or embarrass himself and Guyana, until he finds someone knowledgeable to sensibly discuss such subject matters.

The irrefutable fact remains that the EIA is sanctified in the EPA Act and Permits, and any change without public consultation is illegal. It is revered as the ‘bible’ being the only comprehensive project study that defines the hazards and mitigative actions, and sets the safety envelopes that must be followed – a conviction assuredly avouched by none other than Exxon’s own experts at public meetings.

Its sacrosanct nature is reason why it takes such diligence to complete, taking years in some cases, and involving not only technical experts of the preparers, but also public input. Nevertheless, Bharrat crazilly waves on the invalidations of EIAs in servility to Exxon and its greediness, bringing grave risks to Guyana’s economic, health, safety and environmental devastation – a treacherous act that enhances the chances of an oil spill while he dutifully stands with Exxon against an oil spill cost protection guarantee, without which, Guyana would be bankrupted. No wonder, Guyana is ranked 76^th out of 142 countries by the World Justice Project, with a very poor 2023 rule of law index score of 0.5 out of 1.0.

In stark contrast, the Coalition followed the rule of law with strict adherence to the EIA’s safe limit of 120,000 bopd; and further, to ensure that the rates do not even come close to reaching that limit, the EIA prescribes a safety cushion at a controlled rate of 100,000 bopd which was maintained throughout the Coalition’s tenure. However, upon taking office, the PPPC immediately and illegally upped the rate to 130,000 bopd and kept increasing it to the current rate of 163,000 bopd. This undeniably makes obvious that Exxon respected the competent oversight of the Coalition, but grabs the once in a lifetime opportunity to capitalize on this Government’s slackness, incompetence, and subservience to their demands – sentiments echoed by the Honourable Judge Kiss.