By GHK Lall- Before the hatchets come out, I hurry to clear the air of any conclusions about a deliberate ethnic slur is hurled against over a billion inhabitants of this planet. When I say that the Chinese are mad, it is not that they are insane. The Chinese are mad in that they are extremely angry, so much so that they hop from one foot to the other with barely suppressed fury. They hopped with determined, unerring steps all the way over to Office of the President, and met with the big mandarin himself, Dr. Excellency: Mohamed Irfaan Ali. It has to do with the small matter of making money from selling Guyana’s gas. The Chinese made sure that the international media knew about the meeting, with Reuters doing the honours.
How could we [the Chinese] be left out? On what basis could that new kid on the gas block, Mr. Jesus Bronchalo and his overnight gas sensation Fulcrum LNG gain the nod of approval in the bidding to monetise Guyana’s gas? Who in Guyana is behind this decision that reeks of the foul and lacks anything to do with the fair? If there is any group of business operators who would recognize the foul at work, it would be the Chinese.
The Chinese have a nose for things that are slippery, and this one with Bronchalo is. There is a school of thought that insists they are more street smart than the very commercially savvy capitalist Chinese in Hong Kong. Yet they got the shaft in the contract awarded to monetize Guyana’s gas. I think so, and the Chinese also think so. It is one thing to lose fair and square; it is quite another to lose in a way that reeks of the sleek and to an American with less than impressive gas credentials.
The Chinese were so mad that President Ali was forced to gather his A-team at short notice. What the Chinese want in Guyana, the Chinese get. They got the Hon. Prime Minister, Dr. Phillips. They got the no less honourable Minister of Natural Resources, Dr. Vickram Bharrat. Of conspicuous note, the Chinese did not get the man in charge of Guyana’s oil and gas sector, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo. Perhaps, it was an oversight, or the demands of his inhumanly overwhelming schedule. It could be also that the Chinese had had enough of him and his, ah, schemes, and made clear to the president that they meant business, and they were only open to dealing with serious people in the Government of Guyana.
They want a similar gas deal like the American fellow, Jesus Bronchalo. Though, of course, it was not presented to the public in that boorish manner. It was given the sweet and silky catchline of Chinese interests in opportunities in the gas sector and aligning CNOOC’s corporate social responsibility with Guyana’s social agenda. As storylines go that one is a beauty queen. It is very mature yet with a promise/threat embedded somewhere in there. My translation of that very spare and bland Office of the President statement is simple: We [the Chinese] want a piece of this gas action, a piece like the American. And we must have it.
So, they went straight to the top in Guyana with some of their own top men imported from Beijing or Shanghai. Whichever part of the Red Chinese apparatus they came from (and whoever sent them), I am taking the Chinese side on this one. There is no way in a straight and clean gas monetising contest that an American gas amateur like Jesus Bronchalo emerges the winner ahead of the Chinese. That is, without making allowances for a big fix put in the contract award process.
CNOOC is a 25% partner in the Exxon-led consortium working Guyana’s offshore oilfields. It could not have been an easy call to go against its partner, though it appears that Bronchalo and Fulcrum LNG have no links to Exxon. That also is part of the mist that hovers around the gas monetizing award. The question is this: is Exxon really out of the reckoning in Guyana’s gas business. Or is Bronchalo through Fulcrum LNG the American oil giant’s in via this tortured maneuver. Meaning, this shell entity put together with such rapid-fire precision in the Nevada desert?
Further, the Chinese have had years of doing business with the PPP Government and Vice President Jagdeo. It has been a proven partner, a reliable one that keeps its mouth shut. Hence, it had to have led to the fit of rage that saw the Chinese stamping their way to an audience with El Supremo himself to lay their cards on the table. We want a similar gas deal; we could do well for Guyana. Unsaid for public consumption, and keep the waters calm, was that they could do better than whatever Bronchalo was going to get and give to Guyana. Remember who lent all those millions for the CJIA expansion project.
Remember whose millions are funding the new Demerara Bridge. Remember who is on standby with more millions should the Americans (EXIM Bank) decide that they are not lending any money for one of the tiers of the Wales gas-to-energy project. All this must mean something, and it cannot be this one-way street where the Chinese are shunted aside, and the Americans are guzzling up the easy gravy.
Interestingly, while the PPP Government came up with this farce about 600 million barrels in total new oil, and its verbal fandango about appraisals, the Chinese just drilled a big hole into both concoctions. They let the cat of the bag on the Bluefin discovery. It’s another 700 plus million barrels of new oil, just like the other secret one, Lancet. This is how mad the Chinese are. Silent before but slashing away now. Mark my words, some sweet gas business going their way soon to cool tempers and feelings in the Far East.
