WEBVTT - S8 Ep2 | The Contract 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.160 Guyana, It's Glen again, tiktoking. 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:07.159 I am on TikTok again, ticktak. 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:09.760 I'm here to tickle you guys again. 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.840 This is Glenn Law. He's the publisher of the newspaper 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:20.239 Keana Wilberg works for Kitter News. He is not your 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.760 average publisher. And I'm not just talking about his penchant 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.880 for statement hats and snazzy shirts. 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:30.600 A change my short. I had a while Toby off 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:31.040 this man. 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:34.400 If you watch Law's videos, you will be seeing him 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.479 in different clothes, different shoes, and with glittering jewelry. But 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.800 Law isn't just a larger than life character. He's also 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:45.040 an influencer. He has more than twenty thousand followers on 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:49.000 TikTok and he's a content machine. He puts out a 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.000 video almost every day. 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:52.560 Glen again, tiktoking. 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.120 It's Friday, Glenn ticking you, but this time I'm taking 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:57.160 you guys differently. 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:01.280 Lots of his videos have over one hundred thousand views. 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.360 That's a pretty big number in a country with fewer 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.680 than eight hundred thousand residents. And Glenn Law hosts a 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:11.479 show on YouTube that he broadcasts on Kit's radio station. 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:17.240 A newspaper a radio show, a YouTube channel, tiktoks. It's 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:19.960 kind of a lot, but it's all part of a strategy. 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.640 Law doesn't just want to put information out into the world. 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.520 He wants to reach the masses and he knows how 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.360 to speak their language. Literally, it's a. 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.959 Version of Patois called Kreoles, so it's English and we 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.600 have our own lingo that's mixed into that. 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:39.800 That's Keana Wilberg, the journalist from Lall's newspaper Kitter News 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:42.880 that we heard from last time. She says most people 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:47.560 in Guyana, and especially working class people, speak Creolis. We 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.280 heard it a lot too, like when our taxi driver 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.240 took us to get some typical Guyanese snacks on the 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:55.280 way to the Kijer News office. 0:01:55.760 --> 0:02:07.200 It's hot. It's hot, very hot, too hot. No, it's 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:08.640 ara much. 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:10.040 You said you didn't need it. 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:12.120 I don't eat I eat it one a mistake? 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:14.560 That does that? Does it? 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.079 Kind of does it? Kind of take me experience. They're 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:22.480 going to explore an experience like that for no Miwanaka 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:24.720 and peple not too hot. 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:28.040 I'm not sure if you caught that, but we were 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:32.120 talking about eating some of Guyana's famously spicy peppers and 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:35.240 our driver was speaking in rapid fire creoles. 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.799 So we report the news and that's for. 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:46.160 Middle class and then that is translated into a written 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:51.440 column that we have called them boise and then mister 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.440 Glenlow he would also use his platform to do an 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:56.800 extended version of that. 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.119 This strategy of speaking to people in a way they 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:07.919 understand and relate to it makes a big difference, especially 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:12.720 when you're talking about complicated, messy things like oil contracts. 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.400 Remember the team at kit News was waiting for months 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:20.560 for the government to release its contract with ExxonMobil. Finally 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:24.959 at the end of twenty seventeen, they did December twenty eighth, 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:30.919 twenty seventeen. To be exact, Christmas is a very special 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.480 moment for Guyanese and it's. 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:38.760 A period that the government knows if it wants to 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:43.880 rush anything that needs careful attention, they put it at Christmas, 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:45.080 which is what they did. 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:47.080 Ah. 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:51.960 Yes, the classic news dump. Every government and corporation in 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:56.040 the world knows this tactic. If you're releasing news you're 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:59.680 not super proud of or that you suspect might have 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.680 some backlash, you put it out on a Friday evening 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.000 before a long weekend or during a big sporting event, 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.760 or in the week between Christmas and New Year's but 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:11.520 this wasn't just any news jump. 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:16.040 Finally, the government said, okay, at six o'clock today, we're 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.520 going to release the contract. So Eggxon decided to bowl 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:24.600 a press conference just about two or three hours before that. 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:28.120 That was the first press conference Exon had in Guyana, 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:32.120 and they've hosted very few since then. But this contract 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.599 was really complicated and full of legal eese, so Exon 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.919 decided they would break it down for reporters and point 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:41.760 them toward the most important bits helpful. 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:45.960 It was in a boardroom at the Marriot Hotel, right, 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.960 and my colleagues and I we left. Everyone is down 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.560 serious and for the first time, because we normally don't 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.320 like to share our angles, but this was the first 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:56.960 time everybody was huddled together. 0:04:57.920 --> 0:04:58.719 Did you understand what. 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:01.520 This guy was talking about? What is this? 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.680 What did he mean by this? Did he really say this? 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:09.120 And I'm talking about season journalists, journalists who've been in 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:13.680 this game for like twenty thirty years, covering so much 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:18.960 here and abroad, and they were confused. And my editor 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:21.960 in chief, who was during the time, he was saying, 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:26.960 you know, this is this is exactly what this press 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:28.360 conference is intended to do. 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:33.560 Remember, the contract still wasn't going to be released for 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:37.680 another few hours, so everything Exon told these reporters at 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.080 the press conference it was just like a heads up 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:44.160 before anyone could actually read it, you know, just fyi. 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.280 Then a few hours later, the government did release the 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:50.640 contract and it was chaos. 0:05:53.480 --> 0:06:01.080 This is something that was hidden from media since nineteen 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:02.560 ninety nine. 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.000 Nineteen ninety nine was the year Guyana first signed a 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.880 contract with Exxon Mobile. Then it was revised in twenty 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.520 sixteen after oil was discovered. 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:16.360 No one saw this document. No one even knew what 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:22.120 certain terms meant. Nobody didn't understand what what what is 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.839 two percent royalty? What is fifty to fifty profit oil? 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.920 What is profit oil? What is cost oil? And they're 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:32.560 talking to us with all of these different terms, and 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.240 the conversation just went over everybody's head. 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:40.480 So the contract was unintelligible to anyone who hadn't spent 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.680 years reading oil contracts. And to make things even more confusing, 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:49.360 Exon had primed everyone with information. They wanted people to 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:53.200 know parts of the contract. They wanted to point people's 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:56.599 attention toward. No one could make heads or tails of 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.360 it or tell what was really going on. In fact, 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.600 it would take you years for local lawyers and international 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:06.200 experts to wrap their heads around what exactly this contract 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.279 laid out. As everyone did start to make their way 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:12.720 through it, one by one, they came to the same conclusion. 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:18.120 The majority of people, including the IMF, has gone on 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:19.600 record as. 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:23.120 Saying it was a very unfair deal for. 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:27.240 The Vienna, a historically bad, profoundly bad contract that the 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:29.520 government got with Exxon. 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.480 It's a balance of power problem. 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:37.760 Once the contract assigned, then one of Excellon's sort of 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.679 playbooks is to refuse to renegotiate. 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.760 That was head of the Transparency Institute of Guyana Frederick Collins, 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:51.679 investigative journalist Antonio Juhas, and journalist Steve call who wrote 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:56.160 about Excellent Mobile in his book Private Empire. One by one, 0:07:56.280 --> 0:08:01.679 environmental nonprofits, government corruption groups, and the International Monetary Fund 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.160 came out saying this was a bad deal for Guyana. 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.240 When I asked Exon about it, they sent me the 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:13.800 following statement quote, our Guyana operation is in what's considered 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:18.240 a frontier offshore exploration basin the terms of our petroleum 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.000 agreement with the government of Guyana are common in the 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:25.120 industry and competitive with other countries at a similar stage 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:31.040 of resource discovery. But even some conservative pro oil voices 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.400 have been pointing out major flaws in the contract, which 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:38.319 begs the question is this oil boom actually gonna make 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.920 Guyana rich? We'll get into it after this quick break. 0:08:43.160 --> 0:09:00.679 This is light, sweet crude, and I'm Amy Westervelt. 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.440 Ladies and gentlemen, for a pleasure to welcome you to Georgetown, Guyana. 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.640 Please remain seated with your seatbelt securely fastened until we 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:11.359 are partipicate. 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:12.440 If the Captain turns. 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:14.760 Off the fast and seatbelt side, please love check. 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:18.840 When we landed in Guyana, one thing was very apparent. 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.679 Government officials were hesitant to talk to us. A few 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:25.960 ministers and even the Vice President's scheduler had gotten back 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:28.920 to us about the interviews, but then gone very very quiet. 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.560 Then people kept asking us one question over and over. 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:38.640 Had we seen the Vice News story on Guyana? 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:42.160 Guyana is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:44.240 Is the Chinese that are building this right? 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:44.560 Yes? 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.600 But these deals have come with claims of corruption. Do 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:48.880 you accept bribes? 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:49.360 No? 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:52.200 I don't were a new reporters come from abroad. 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:57.320 They always want to make a developing country leader look corrupt. 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:02.360 In June twenty two, Vice News aired a damning piece 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:07.320 on corruption in Guyana. Journalists went undercover, posing as a 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:11.120 Chinese businessman who was interested in investing in the country 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:15.559 and his secretary. They met with various Chinese businessmen who 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:20.280 claimed to be middlemen for bribing government officials, particularly the 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.880 Vice President Barat Jugdeo. One man in particular, mister Sue, 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:28.880 claimed to have handled a deal between the oil company 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.480 and Jack Dao. He took the undercover journalist to see 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:34.920 the Vice president at his home as a way to 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.800 show them that he did have this close relationship with him. 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.000 Jagdeo never spoke of bribes, but he did say that 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:45.600 he was good friends with mister Sue and could help 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.040 their project from the government side. 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.120 Can you understand how with Theo in detail, I'm. 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:55.360 Not getting involved business, you will get his support. 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.480 Sus my friend he at all his soon beans, with 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:00.400 all it raiment. 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.720 I don't, I don't I understand. I understand. 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:09.360 The thing is that my thing is invoment. So you 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:11.480 can either assist from. 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:17.280 Goloments after that story came out, Jagdeo's sued mister Sue 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.520 for defamation in Guyana. He claimed fifty million dollars in 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:25.480 damages and he seems to have stopped talking to foreign 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.679 journalists altogether, at least for a while. A lot of 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:32.640 people look at the contract situation in Guyana and think 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:36.480 it must be corruption. In fact, Jagdeo himself accused the 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:41.400 previous government, the one that actually signed this contract, of corruption. 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:47.439 Now those accusations are flying at him too, after being 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.600 a vocal critic of the contract for years and promising 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:54.760 to renegotiate it when his government resumed power. Now Jagdeo 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.520 says renegotiation is not an option. He often repeats a 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:03.120 phrase that Exon has used over and over, Santa Kiyev contract, 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:09.240 Santa Ti of contract, sanctity of contract. Contract renegotiation has 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:13.960 become a big issue in Guyana. Government officials are still 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:18.280 answering questions about it years later, and Glenlaw is turning 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.880 out hundreds of hours of video on the topic. To 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.440 understand why, we're going to have to get into some 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:28.079 of the details and spoiler alert, they are confusing as 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:34.720 hell to recap. Guyana signed a contract with Exon Mobile 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.640 in nineteen ninety nine, allowing them to explore for oil, 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:43.280 but Exon didn't really start exploring there until about a 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:47.920 decade later, and then in twenty fifteen they struck oil, 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.560 and a year later, in twenty sixteen, they inked a 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:56.000 new contract with the government of Guyana. According to Exon, 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:59.600 even though they had found oil, no one knew the 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:03.440 full potential of Guyana's reserves at the time, but none 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.840 of that was made public until December twenty seventeen, when 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:12.240 Exeon held a press conference to explain the contract to 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:14.040 journalists like Keana Wilberg. 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:18.360 It's clear that they weren't exactly telling us lies, but 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:19.720 they weren't telling us the truth. 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:24.920 Eider. This practice using statements that are technically true but 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:28.840 also leave out critical information in order to mislead people. 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.880 It has a name paltering, and the fossil fuel industry 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:36.200 uses it over and over again. John Cook is a 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.480 climate communications researcher at Monash University in Australia and an 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:44.960 advisor to Facebook on climate misinformation. He says paltering is 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.520 a key tactic for the industry. He often points to 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.959 the way fossil fuel companies talk about renewable energy as 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.559 a text book example, the. 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:58.560 Sun doesn't shine at night or the wind doesn't always fly, 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:03.080 and therefore or renewables on a reliable source of energy. 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.120 Of course, it's true that the wind doesn't always blow 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.360 and that the sun doesn't shine at night, but this 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:14.480 argument intentionally leaves out information about things like battery storage 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:20.680 that address those issues. Exceon Mobile does the same thing 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.800 in Guyana. In fact, the company uses a handful of 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:28.000 classic disinformation tactics all the time, not just pultering, but 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:32.000 also implying that any information not released by the company 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:38.040 itself is inaccurate and something called building social license things 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:42.400 like sponsoring sporting events or educational programs to convince the 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:46.240 public that the company is a positive member of the community. 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:49.200 These three tactics have been deployed over and over again 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:52.280 in Guyana, not just at that initial press conference, but 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.720 in a steady stream of marketing materials the company has 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:59.120 released since then, like this promotional video they put out 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:03.040 on Facebook to explain the contract to the Guyanese public. 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.840 I'm Janelle Persad and I'm Mikaela Careron. So while development 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:11.360 activities continue to progress at a rapid pace. There are 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.280 still many of you out there who have questions, questions 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:18.080 specifically about the production sharing agreement or the contract which 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.320 was signed in twenty sixteen. And if you guys hadn't heard, 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.920 Exon Mobil will once again be sponsoring the Guyana Amazon 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:29.440 Warriors Cricket Cricket Lovely Titanti Cricket returns to Guyana. 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:31.600 We could not be more excited. 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:34.320 And that's why we're recording this episode from the Guyana 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:36.119 National Stadium in Providence. 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:39.120 That's not us editing the tape, that's the video as 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:42.880 is going straight from oil to cricket without missing a beat. 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.240 This is one of the ways Exon is building social 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:51.840 license by associating cricket, Guyana's beloved national sport with Exon. 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.120 These two young women, one of African descent the other 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:58.240 of Indian descent, who appeal to as much of the 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:02.000 Guyanese public as possible, all are filming from the national 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:09.880 cricket field and highlighting Exxon's contributions to Guyanese society. I 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:13.080 asked Glen Law, the publisher of Kitter News we heard 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:16.320 from up top, what he thinks of the cricket sponsorship. 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.960 I am so afraid, deep with in my soul, with 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:27.720 what they're doing there. That is not only misleading, but 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:32.680 it's very dangerous. I have said that on team times 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:34.800 and I will repeat it tomorrow night on the radio. 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:40.520 You see when they sponsor this cricket before I think 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:43.480 two years ago, their sponsor cricket, and when you walk 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:46.240 in the streets, you would hear every guy and saying 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:51.080 doubt God for Eggson. It wasn't for Eggxon, we would 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:55.120 have never been able to see cricket live on television. 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:58.560 You see how dangerous that it. 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:05.120 Oil companies, like all big industrial companies, work really hard 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.480 to convince the public that they're doing more good than harm. 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:10.840 They spend a lot of time and money on it. 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.840 Social license. The public's willingness to give them the benefit 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:17.880 of the doubt or support policies that the oil companies 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.560 want is important to their business model. So when they 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:25.720 do things like sponsoring sports teams and music festivals and schools, 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:28.919 they're not just playing the good guy. They're not just 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:33.639 doing it for pr They're also making entire communities dependent 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:38.840 on their apparent generosity. Over time, it makes people less 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:43.160 likely to criticize them. Because they feel totally beholden to them. 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.200 Remember how the Exon promotional video promised to answer all 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.360 of our questions about the contract well before getting into 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:53.360 any of the actual details that they've promised. First they 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.560 remind us that Exon is supporting cricket in a big way, 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.720 and then they raise an eyebrow at what anyone else 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:01.960 might be saying about this contract. 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:06.320 Well, recognizing that there is a lot of incorrect information 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:09.440 out there, we hope to provide clarity through our conversations 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:12.960 with president of ix On Mobile Guyana, Alistair Routledge and 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.200 our treasurer at Katrina Masses in this episode of Access 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:16.840 Exon Mobile. 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.840 And finally we get to the poultering. Here's Alistair Routledge, 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.440 who heads up Exon's operations in Guyana. 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:28.600 So fundamentally, this is a sharing production sharing agreement. 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:31.880 This is the guy in charge of Exon in Guyana, 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:33.280 Alistair Routledge. 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:37.800 But in that sharing agreement, the contractors, which is Exomobile, 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:41.600 Hes and Snook, take all of the risk up front. 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:45.840 So if we never made an economic development, we would 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:49.439 swallow all of the costs that went into that investment. 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.240 We would never get paid back. So there's never any 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:53.399 risk for the state. 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.520 What Routledge is seeing is that Exon and its partners 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:01.240 are investing money into the discovery and puduction of oil, 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:04.600 and that's expensive. These are things like surveying the ocean 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.760 floor to figure out where oil is and then drilling 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:10.600 exploratory wells to see what kind of oil they can 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.320 get there. And in Guyana they can get what's called 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:18.280 light sweet crude, the best kind of oil. It's easier 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:21.320 to turn into gasoline and it commands a higher price 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:24.960 on the world market. So in Guyana they not only 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.960 found oil, they found a lot of the most profitable kind. 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:32.800 But then there are more expenses before that oil can 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:35.919 be sold. Wales need to be built, staff hired, the 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:39.000 oil needs to be refined and shipped. All of it 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.560 costs billions and billions of dollars. Here's ex On Guyana's 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:47.600 Vice president and business service manager, Philip Reyatima, explaining it 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:49.119 all at a press conference. 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.200 This is the first year since our inception in nineteen 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.960 ninety nine that we've generated profit in Guyana, underscoring the 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:01.760 complexity of our business and the years of investment required 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:08.760 before payoff overall expenses. We're up from twenty twenty in 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:10.200 line with increase in production. 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:14.040 In other words, deep water offshore drilling projects take a 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:16.400 lot of time and a lot of money before they 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.960 start to pay off, and before anyone can start divvying 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:23.440 up profits. The oil companies need to pay themselves back 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:27.560 for all those years of investment. It's only fair. But 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:31.200 there are a couple of things to keep in mind here. First. Well, yes, 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.560 Exxon has technically been in Guyana since nineteen ninety nine, 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.600 it only started actively looking for oil in two thousand 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:43.600 and eight, and Exon spokespeople leave out some other key 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:48.680 details that make things a whole lot more blurry. Here's 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:52.199 what you need to know first, before there's any profit 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:55.840 to split. Exeon and its partners takes seventy five percent 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:59.120 of all revenue off the top to pay themselves back 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:02.680 for exploration and development costs, all those things that Routledge 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:05.359 was talking about. So if you think about one hundred 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.600 dollars barrel of oil, that's seventy five dollars to the 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:12.439 oil company's straightaway. It's what the oil companies referred to 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:17.320 as cost oil. The remaining twenty five dollars or profit 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:22.280 oil gets split between Guyana and the oil companies with 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:26.000 an extra two percent royalty coming to Guyana for a 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:29.520 grand total of fourteen dollars and fifty cents a barrel. 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:33.400 It may be ultimately over a long period of time 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:35.399 of fifty to fifty split. Right now, it is not 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:37.880 a fifty to fifty split right now, it's six to one. 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:43.000 This is Tomsonzilo from the nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:47.080 and Financial Analysis. He's looked at Guyana's oil contract closer 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:49.000 than almost anybody. 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:52.760 Right now, you're looking at a revenue take of somewhere 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:56.159 between six dollars to the oil and gas companies to 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.520 every one dollar to the government of Guyana. 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.560 And just to put that royalty in perspective, that two 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:07.440 percent that gets talked about as this like big extra 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:12.520 tip for Guyana. The average range for royalties in situations 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:18.520 like this is eight to twenty five percent, So two 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:21.879 percent is quite a bit below the low end of 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:26.359 that spectrum. It's not great. Plus, Guana's on the hook 0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:30.200 for a lot of other costs. It pays Exon's Guyanese 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:34.240 income tax, for example, and it's had to get foreign 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:38.399 loans to cover the cost of various infrastructure projects that 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:41.440 need to be built to support the fossil fuel industry, 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:45.720 like the export terminal in Georgetown that Exon needs to 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:49.720 ship things in and out of. Second, you could look 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:52.000 at the current split and say, okay, well, sure, but 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:55.280 expenses are expenses, and once they're paid off, it will 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:58.679 be fifty to fifty And again that's technically true, but 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:01.720 as you heard from Ryet a moment ago, those expenses 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:05.400 just keep growing. Here's where it starts to get really tricky. 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:08.639 It's pretty normal for an oil company to recoup at 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:12.000 least some of its development costs once a well starts 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:16.359 generating revenue. What's not common is for them to build 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:20.760 against what's called future oil, the oil that future well 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:23.000 sites are projected to produce. 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:29.840 All of Exxon's development costs are folded in as a 0:23:29.880 --> 0:23:33.119 part of the balance that's owed. They've developed a couple 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:38.439 of existing wells where they're actually drawing oil, and that 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:41.640 oil is producing revenue, and so they're getting money for that. 0:23:41.680 --> 0:23:45.720 But they now have also some twenty plus other fields 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:49.960 that they have discovered that are not producing oil without 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:53.800 the development costs get folded into the balance anyway. In 0:23:53.840 --> 0:23:57.200 other words, they're paying for future oil now. 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:01.560 So Exon has two wells that are producing actual barrels 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:04.199 of oil for sale. That's where all the profit is 0:24:04.240 --> 0:24:07.159 coming from right now. But on top of covering the 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:12.320 expenses associated with those wells, they're recouping the expenses associated 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:17.359 with all of their ongoing exploration and development in Guyana. 0:24:17.560 --> 0:24:20.680 See Excellon didn't stop exploring once they found that initial 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:23.919 bit of oil. They've continued to survey and drill to 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:26.760 look for more oil, and they're continuing to build new 0:24:26.800 --> 0:24:30.639 wells and production rigs too. All of that costs money, 0:24:30.760 --> 0:24:33.680 and normally those costs would be recouped once those new 0:24:33.720 --> 0:24:38.800 discoveries start producing sellable barrels of oil. But instead of 0:24:38.800 --> 0:24:41.880 waiting for that, Excellent and its partners are paying themselves 0:24:41.920 --> 0:24:45.240 back now with the profits from those first two wells. 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:49.280 In other words, Guyana is paying today for well sites 0:24:49.359 --> 0:24:53.320 that may never turn a profit, and that's not generally 0:24:53.359 --> 0:24:59.920 how these projects work. Here's how investigative journalist Antonia Yuha 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:02.000 Let's put it. 0:25:02.000 --> 0:25:10.159 It is unprecedented that Exxon is recouping all of its costs, 0:25:10.400 --> 0:25:13.320