WEBVTT - S8 Ep1 | The Boom 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:10.560 We interrupt this program to bring you a breaking near story. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.800 US oil giant Exxon strikes oil in Guyana. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.600 Now one of the prominent election issues in Guyana has 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.480 been the country's oil exploration efforts. 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:25.320 They were rumors swirling that Ganna had found oil. 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.600 Sound like almost all its neighbors, Guyana is not yet 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:33.040 an oil producer, but last week Eggxon Mobil announced it 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:37.960 had discovered oil off the coast. 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:42.879 In May twenty fifteen, Exon Mobil announced that it had 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:46.000 struck oil off the coast of the small South American 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:50.600 country of Guyana. And in Guyana, this was a big deal, 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:54.160 And then just a couple months later, Exon was making 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:59.800 headlines for another reason entirely. An investigation is underway into Exon, 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.520 the huge oil company married research about the effects of 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:07.479 climate change. Reports suggests more than thirty years ago, Exon's 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:11.280 own scientists were taking climate change projections into account in 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:12.520 its operational plans. 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:16.000 Exon was on the cutting edge of science. 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:17.839 They wanted to be on the cutting edge of science. 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:19.480 Forty years ago, on climate. 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:23.760 Change journalists at Inside Climate News, the La Times, and 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:28.800 Columbia Journalism School published dozens of internal documents that showed 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:33.119 that Exon Mobile had been warned by its own scientists 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.760 about climate change back in the nineteen seventies, and yet 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.559 had worked hard to keep the world from ever hearing 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:46.400 those warnings or taking them seriously. Exon rushed to defend 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:50.480 its record. It criticized the journalists. It ran tons of 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:53.880 social media ads and videos that would pop up every 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.360 time you searched Exon climate on Google. It claimed the 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:01.120 whole story was part of an organized plat against it. 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.480 But it was hard to deny the hundreds of internal 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.920 documents that the company itself had put in its corporate 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.239 archive at the University of Texas Library. It was all there, 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:16.440 in black and white, predictions of warming temperatures, rising seas, 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:21.200 fires and hurricanes, models and charts that showed exactly what 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:26.840 we're dealing with today. Story after story painted Exon as 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:30.360 the world's climate villain. And it was at this moment 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.920 that Guyana, a country on the frontlines of the global 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.639 climate crisis and one of the few South American nations 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:41.440 to stay out of oil throughout its history, emerged as 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:46.760 a new oil state thanks to Exxon. As time went on, 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.840 Exon began projecting that oil from Guyana would make up 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:59.000 around twenty five percent of its total global output, so 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.519 to recap. The same year Exxon was exposed for blocking 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:06.120 climate policy for decades, they decided to start a whole 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:10.640 new project doing offshore drilling in Guyana, a project so 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.720 large that it's what climate experts call a carbon bomb. 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:18.320 Knowing everything they know about climate change and the role 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:22.919 of fossil fuels planet, knowing the inevitability of oil spills 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:25.960 and flaring and things going wrong. Not in the nineteen 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.560 seventies when they were just learning about these things, but 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.320 now when they know so much. That's when they decided 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:35.640 to expand into Guyana. 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.400 One of the first things we found it was who 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.440 was this company that found this oil? And they said, oh, 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:49.200 it was EEPGLSO Exploration and Production Gata Limited, and that 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:53.520 company is a subsidiary of Exxon Mobile Corporation. 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.240 Keanu Wilberg reports on the oil and gas industry for 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.200 one of the country's top papers, Kit News. 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:06.200 And so I said, okay, we need to let people know, yes, 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:10.960 we found oil, but who are we really dealing with. 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.080 Who is this company? What's his track record? We don't 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:18.440 know anything about it. Let's get into it. 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:25.279 I'm Amy Westervelt, and I'm a journalist who's been covering 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:28.840 the fossil fuel industry for twenty years, so it was 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.799 a big surprise to me that Keana and her colleagues 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.120 had not heard of Exxon Mobile before this. In the US, 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.800 of course, they're a household name, but for journalists in particular, 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:45.800 they have a reputation. For me and every journalist I 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.640 know who's ever done an excellon story, weird shit just 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.839 happens when you're reporting on this company. When I was 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:56.240 interviewing those former excellent scientists I mentioned before, the ones 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:58.520 that had done all that climate research back in the 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:02.200 seventies and eighties, every time I traveled, half my reservations 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.359 would somehow wind up changed or canceled. It actually happened 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:07.800 when I was reporting on this story too. On my 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:10.359 way to Guyana, I got a message just before my 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.160 flight that my hotel room in Georgetown had been canceled. 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.520 I called our senior producer and editor, Sarah Ventry about 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:18.240 it to let her know. 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:24.240 Good morning, Sarah. I woke up to a fun little 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:26.719 surprise that Marriott had. 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.240 Canceled my hotel reservation tonight. 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:33.400 I totally forgot that, like every time I go somewhere 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:39.440 to report on Exxon, this happens. We asked Keana if 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:43.640 intimidation from either the oil companies or the government. 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:45.719 Ever makes her think twice about her beat. 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:56.560 Absolutely. Absolutely. I remember uh watching this documentary about how 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:01.120 citizens of Papua New Guinea died when they were pushing 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:05.000 for an oil and gas project in a particular area. 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:09.520 People who were protesting against it started disappearing. But I 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:15.120 am I am very very much aware of the dangers 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.160 of reporting on the oil and gas sector. 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:22.280 Those dangers have only increased in the few years since 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:26.120 Guyana became an oil country. For decades now, the fossil 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:33.320 fuel industry's story has been that oil equals development and prosperity, equality, stability, 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.040 a better quality of life. As the world's fossil fuel 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.680 companies race to tap the last of the planet's oil reserves, 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:43.760 we have a chance to examine that promise up close 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.680 in real time this season Life and Death in the 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:55.200 world's fastest growing economy. The purpose of an oil company 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:57.599 is to make money. They have no other purpose. 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:02.080 If you have abundant natural source and you could use 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:06.560 those natural resources in a very responsible manner to help 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:10.840 lift your people out of poverty. That's what I support. 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:17.040 It's really extraordinary the leverage the industry has over the country, 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.840 and it's inexplicable the amount. 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:25.760 A number of attacks we have received from members of 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:31.200 the government. It shows that the government is not ready 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:35.480 to accommodate persons who are willing to speak out. 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.440 One point two billion gallons of suite in our Christine Ocean, 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:42.520 so will be getting roughly again. 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:44.640 The ship for every battel of oil they take out. 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:47.520 That's the deal. In a nutshell. 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.360 I thought it was hard to report on the CIA, 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.320 and I came to understand that Exon was far more 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.040 difficult and a little bit scarier even. 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:04.400 Welcome to Light Sweet Crude, a special crossover season of 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:09.440 Drilled and Damages. Stay with us. 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:17.840 My lifelong dream since since growing up was to be 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:18.360 a teacher. 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.240 This is Keana Wilberg, who we heard from before. She 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.480 was one of my first connections in Guyana. Actually, I 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:28.080 originally hired her to help do some interviews and some 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.720 on the ground recording when we couldn't travel to Guyana 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.360 because of COVID. But the more I got to know her, 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:37.160 I realized that she wasn't just helping us to tell 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:39.680 this story. She was a big part of it. 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:44.240 And I didn't get to fulfill that dream because I 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:48.440 was told that I was too young and the boys 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.800 in the class would not take me seriously as a teacher. 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.440 So I said, Okay, what's the next thing that I 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:59.840 wanted to do, and that would be writing. I loved 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:06.120 her and I love to pray as well, so I 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:10.240 remember praying and I said, you know, God, if you 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.760 channel me in the direction. 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.520 To get a job that allows me to do what 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.920 I love, so that allows me to write, I'm going 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:27.000 to give one thousand percent of myself every singly. 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.560 The next day, I. 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:36.600 Got this job. This job was working as a reporter 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:40.680 at one of the country's largest newspapers, Kit News. She 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.440 was young, nineteen maybe twenty, and she had no idea 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:48.000 what to expect. She stayed up all night before her 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.960 first day studying the paper and its writers. 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:53.840 So I had a little notebook and I wrote down 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:55.960 all of the topics that they paid attention to in 0:09:56.040 --> 0:10:00.360 health and crime and education, because I wasn't sure where 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.000 they would put me or what they would ask me. 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:07.040 She even picked out the perfect first day of work outfit, 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:09.200 just like you used to do the night before your 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:10.280 first day of school. 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:19.960 I remember having this black jacket with gold buttons and 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:28.559 matching green inner top, the black pants with green shoes, 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:31.040 and when I got to wear I thought that I 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:31.920 looked so good. 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:36.360 But it turned into one of her first lessons about 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:40.640 navigating Guyana's political landscape as a journalist. 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:44.640 I got to work the first day and I was 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:48.880 reprimanded for it because green and black are party colors. 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.640 It's the two colors of one of the major political 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.240 parties in the country. If you go out there as 0:10:55.240 --> 0:11:00.400 a reporter, they automatically ask you, oh, are you are 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:01.760 representative of this party. 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:05.760 That's a big deal in Guyana, where politics are tense 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:07.679 and racialized. 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:14.560 You have predominantly Blocks and you have predominantly Indians, and 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.719 they are parties that represent those interests. 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:25.359 Leading up to elections, you will see both sides reminding 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:30.720 of things that happen five years ago, ten years ago. 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:37.920 Fifty years ago. You will hear them beating these racist 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.800 drums like every single time it's leading up to elections. 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:47.960 And so unfortunately, even at this media entity, when it 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:52.400 gets to that time, you see some people say good afternoon, 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:53.240 and some people don't. 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:58.400 According to Keana, oil drilling has exacerbated the problem. 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:07.600 It's more cut throat and there's no apology. There's no 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:11.360 apology for it. There's no care for window dressing anymore. 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.040 It's going to be violet, it's going to be disrespectful. 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:20.600 It's oil is just making this the politics. It's getting toxic. 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:23.800 It's written an extremely toxic level. 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:27.840 That's pretty concerning in a country with a history of 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:32.120 political battles turning violent. The fact that politics are turning 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:35.120 ugly in the wake of oil doesn't exactly bode well 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:39.960 for stability in Guyana. Americans are of course, no strangers 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:45.000 to divisive, toxic, racialized, or even violent politics either. But 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.160 to give you just one example of just how bad 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:49.920 it's starting to get in Guyana, Keana told us about 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.440 a fight over one piece of oil related legislation that 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:57.439 actually ended up in a wrestling match. Seriously, some politicians 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:06.320 ended up rolling around on the floor of the National Assembly. 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:07.680 Real the thing now on presidented vulgarity in the National 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:09.720 Assembly Bana. 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:16.240 The opposition resorted to whistling, stealing the mace and that instrument. 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.160 If it's removed from there, you cannot pass a law. 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:26.480 So the opposition tried to steal the mace so that 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:27.959 they can pass it. 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:28.920 And it was. 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.880 A tug of war between the members of the opposition 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:42.680 and the parliamentary officials and their images online with a 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:47.480 parliamentary official lyne on the ground hugging the mace so 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.080 that it cannot be stolen from him. 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:53.760 That sort of thing has been happening more and more 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.880 in the past couple of years as Excellent started actually 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:02.400 producing barrels of oil. Suddenly the potential for oil profits 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:07.080 has become real money in government accounts. Roads are being built, 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:11.560 government programs are being announced. Guyana's capital, Georgetown, it's an 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:15.520 oil boomtown now that caters to foreigners in the oil business. 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.480 There are high rise hotels springing up all over the place. 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:22.760 It's impossible to get a reservation at the most popular 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:26.840 restaurant in town. Old colonial homes near the waterfront have 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.520 been torn down and replaced by modern apartment buildings or 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.520 condos where oil execs from Houston rotate in and out. 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.680 Competition for power and wealth has intensified, turning up the 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:44.880 heat on long simmering political, ethnic and class resentments. When 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.920 that first announcement was made in twenty fifteen. It was 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:53.680 just the earliest hint of what was to come. Exon 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.520 had figured out that there was oil off Guyana's coast, 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:00.920 but it needed to understand exactly how much how accessible 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:04.320 it was. Once that was determined, it had to commission 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:08.760 unusually large and complex offshore rigs to get at the oil. 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.920 These were not your standard offshore platforms. Exon needed to 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.560 be able not only to drill in extremely deep water, 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:19.360 but also to store large quantities of oil at sea 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:23.560 and ship barrels directly from the middle of the ocean. 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:26.520 It takes at least two years to build these things. 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:31.240 They're called floating production, storage and Offloading vessels, or as 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:34.560 we heard a lot of people call them FPSOs. They 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:38.480 cost up to three billion dollars each and they can 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:41.480 take up to a year just to install and get going. 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:45.160 So it makes sense that while Exon announced that it 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:48.400 had discovered oil in Guyana in twenty fifteen, it didn't 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:52.680 actually produce its first barrel there until twenty nineteen. When 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.360 that happened, the country's president at the time, David Granger, 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:00.160 was so thrilled he declared the day a national holiday. 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:07.080 Guy needs I should issue a proclamation declaring the twentieth 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:10.080 of December as National Petroleum Day. 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:13.440 In those four years from the discovery of oil to 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.680 the production of it, Keanu Wilberg set herself the task 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.600 of learning everything she possibly could about the industry and 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.160 about the company that Guyana was partnering with. 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.680 I distinctly remember I said, Okay, you know what, I 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.800 don't know anything about oil and gas. I'm editor in 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:34.640 chief at the TAME. Adam Harris said, you know, I 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:39.440 have a book somewhere at home about Exxon. 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.240 The book was one of the all time masterpieces ever 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.800 written about Exon Private Empire. 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:51.160 I'm Steve Call and I am the author of Private Empire, 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:53.280 Exxon Mobile, and American Power. 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:57.200 Steve Call is also an investigative journalist for The New Yorker. 0:16:58.040 --> 0:16:59.920 I thought it was hard to report on the CIA, 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:04.320 and I came to understand that Exon was far more 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:09.680 difficult and a little bit scarier. Even I joked with 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:14.160 my colleagues that, you know, if I disappeared, like if 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:16.479 some van pulled up beside me on the street and 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:20.359 I was bundled away and they never saw me again, 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:24.880 that it wouldn't be al Qaeda, which I had reported 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:27.240 on it wouldn't be the CIA, which I had reported, 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.439 I'd probably be excellent. They have that way of creeping 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:34.199 people out of intimidation actually, and it's it's a strategy, 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:37.679 and they're very practiced at it and effective at it. 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.520 They have a lot of power and resources with which 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:41.760 to intimidate people. 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:46.800 Keanu photocopied Calls book for her colleagues. Reading it, she 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:49.480 could tell she was signing up for a big challenge, 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.640 but it wasn't all on her shoulders. Her paper, Kitter 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.639 News knew that Guyana getting into the oil business was 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:58.240 a big deal, so they created an oil and gas 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:00.880 desk and put five journalists on it, some for oil, 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:04.439 some for gas. They all read those photocopies of Private 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.840 Empire and then came up with questions they wanted answers for. 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:16.160 Everyone was armed with pencils and exercise books, notebooks, and 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:18.400 we were writing on all the questions that we want 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:20.000 to ask, that we want to find out and do 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:20.760 research a book. 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:23.720 As they did their research, they would publish it in 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:25.320 a series of weekly articles. 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:29.040 And we started out with everything you need to know 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:35.480 about Excel Mobile, and some of our stories looked at 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:42.360 the environmental issues concerns that countries civil society groups had 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:44.320 about exelmobiles operations. 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:49.960 One of those concerns was, unsurprisingly, climate change and the 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:53.080 extent to which a massive new oil project would be 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.399 exacerbating a problem that the country and the world is 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:00.879 already facing. Dianese President your Fanali has painted sort of 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.399 a robbing Peter to pay Paul picture, claiming that oil 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.920 money will help Guyana pay for the cost of adapting 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:12.400 to climate change, never mind that it will also exacerbate 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:17.560 the problem. And Guyana's capital, Georgetown, is below sea level already. 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:20.879 In fact, it was already below sea level when it 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:24.359 was built. Back in the late seventeen hundreds. The Dutch 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:28.280 colonized the area and engineered a canal system for Georgetown, 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:30.720 similar to those they built in the Netherlands. 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:35.920 Now there are hundreds and hundreds of these in Guyana, 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.800 all along the coast. So you have the sea wall, 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:41.639 but they're breaks in the sea wall all along that 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:45.639 has these openings. That has a sluice, so it's like 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:49.240 a gate that opens and closes, so at low tide 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:52.840 it's open to let water out. At high tide it's 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:54.879 closed to keep the seawater out. 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:59.600 Salvador to Carries was born and raised in Guyana. Today 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:01.560 he worked as a tour guide there. 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:05.320 And right now even there are parts of the east coast, 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:09.040 and even here during spring tides you should see the 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.440 waves coming over the top of the wall. So any 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:16.240 kind of rise in sea level, we're in trouble. How 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.000 much do you keep building this wall up? At some 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:21.800 point we're going to have to think about moving, and 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:25.280 the government is already talking about it, actually moving the 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:28.239 capital back into where the big airport is. 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:41.359 I was walking around with this yesterday. Someone was like, man, 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:52.320 why are you walking around with that brooksh. 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.679 When we got to Guyana, we didn't just head straight 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:53.639 for the oil and gas experts and for a drive 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:57.760 by of the Exxon headquarters. We wanted to understand the 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:01.920 context all these changes were happening in, so we went 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.680 to the market, we talked to fishermen at the seawall, 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:08.720 and we hit the National Museum with Salvador. It turns 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:11.680 out the Dutch and the British weren't the only colonial 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:16.159 powers interested in Guyana back in the seventeen hundreds. The French, 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:20.000 Spanish and Portuguese all took parts of the country too. 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:23.600 You got the true Guanas and what they used to 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:25.280 call British Guiana. 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:26.679 Dutch Guiana and French Guiana. 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:31.040 Dutch Guiana is surnam is. 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:34.840 Here and Spanish Cana was here and they are Naco. 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:39.680 Spanish Guana became part of Venezuela. Portuguese Ganda became part 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:44.639 of Brazil. So you've got French, no French, Dutch and English. 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:46.880 But the border got changed. 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:50.439 At this point, Salvador stood in front of a big 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:53.480 map of the country to show how these former colonies 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.439 had been divided into new countries. 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:04.680 Brazil and we gave all of this to Venezuela. Sonaudi 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:10.000 claimed that this should be border. So two turds again, 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:11.440 they say it belongs to them. 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:19.520 Na, no way, sorry, here. 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:21.960 Not happening. 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:26.159 In case you missed that, he's saying that Venezuela is 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:29.679 laying claim to a portion of Guyana. In fact, they 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:32.920 lay claim to a fairly large percentage of Guyana's land 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:38.040 and also to all of its offshore area, which means 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:41.679 the oil. That border dispute has been going on for 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:44.639 more than a century, but the twenty fifteen discovery of 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:49.639 oil in Guyana reignited it. By that point, Venezuela had 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:54.119 actually kicked out several foreign oil companies, including Exonmobile. 0:22:54.840 --> 0:23:00.000 The reason why we are famous, no is that Venezuela 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:08.720 La has denied, denied the US companies there rightful share. 0:23:08.960 --> 0:23:10.119 Whatever that. 0:23:10.240 --> 0:23:14.600 Maybe this is Alfred Boulai, an engineer and energy expert 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:18.000 in Guyana, who says there have been various research projects 0:23:18.040 --> 0:23:21.920 around oil in the country for decades. Today he works 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:27.560 for Transparency Institute Guyana, which pushes for increased government transparency. 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:31.359 So I knew it was oil being healed, and certain 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:37.639 knowledgeable people knew yet, particularly mister Borlam in the nineteen seventies, 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:38.880 the Coamo. 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:43.760 President, that's former President Forbes Burnham. The country officially gained 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:47.600 independence from Britain in nineteen sixty six, but it didn't 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:51.800 have its first entirely democratic election until the early nineties. 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:55.280 In the lead up to independence, the most popular party 0:23:55.400 --> 0:23:58.639 was the People's Progressive Party the PPP, and at that 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:01.439 point in the sixties it was a cross racial party 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:04.560 led by two men, one of Indian descent, Chetty Jagon, 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:07.880 the other of African descent Forbes Burnham. Like a lot 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:10.439 of other South American political leaders at the time, they 0:24:10.440 --> 0:24:14.520 were both leftists, and they had strong opinions about who 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:18.919 should own and benefit from Guyana's natural resources, not Western 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:22.800 oil companies. For one, they wanted Guyana's resources to benefit 0:24:22.880 --> 0:24:26.320 its people. Also, like a lot of South American countries, 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:29.720 Guyana was on the CIA's radar at the time, and 0:24:29.800 --> 0:24:32.400 they had strong opinions about which of these two men 0:24:32.480 --> 0:24:35.400 they'd prefer to see in charge of so many resources. 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:39.480 Burnham the one who didn't spend quite so much time 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:43.880 with Fidel Castro as they have done in so many countries. 0:24:43.920 --> 0:24:47.440 The CIA leaned on racial differences to split the parties 0:24:47.480 --> 0:24:52.520 into two and then backed Burnham. Despite its relative stability 0:24:52.560 --> 0:24:55.399 compared to some of its neighbors, Guyana wasn't a big 0:24:55.480 --> 0:24:59.160 target for its oil because it sat beneath the ocean 0:24:59.160 --> 0:25:02.560 floor some forty miles off the coast. So from the 0:25:02.640 --> 0:25:05.520 nineteen seventies to the early two thousands, the big US 0:25:05.520 --> 0:25:08.800 oil companies were really concentrating on Venezuela. 0:25:09.720 --> 0:25:13.359 So I am absolutely sure that they knew they was 0:25:13.400 --> 0:25:18.040 always there and just waited Venezuela is going to play bad. 0:25:19.560 --> 0:25:22.760 Then they said, well, okay, we have oil elsewhere, and 0:25:22.800 --> 0:25:28.120 then negotiated a very sweet deal. So the people who 0:25:28.480 --> 0:25:35.159 knew about oil knew these things, but the general public didn't. 0:25:35.520 --> 0:25:38.720 Boo I thinks it's possible that Venezuela and Guyana's oil 0:25:38.800 --> 0:25:41.840 are fed by the same reserve, which could be further 0:25:41.920 --> 0:25:47.080 fueling Venezuela's attempts to stop the drilling in Guyana. All 0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:49.760 of this got Keana Wilberg and her team at KIT 0:25:50.000 --> 0:25:53.399 News thinking about one key question that they had not 0:25:53.640 --> 0:25:57.520 been able to find an answer to about Exxon's sudden 0:25:57.560 --> 0:25:58.960 presence in Guyana. 0:26:00.160 --> 0:26:02.360 The contract that we have with this company. 0:26:03.160 --> 0:26:07.480 Steve Call's book Private Empire is filled with details about 0:26:07.480 --> 0:26:11.760 what kinds of deals countries like Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and 0:26:11.880 --> 0:26:16.720 Guyana's neighbor Venezuela had struck with Exon In twenty sixteen, 0:26:16.880 --> 0:26:20.360 a year after Exon discovered oil offshore. Keana and her 0:26:20.359 --> 0:26:23.720 newsroom wanted to know where Guyana stood compared to those 0:26:23.760 --> 0:26:27.639 other countries. Equatorial Guinea had only gotten about eight percent 0:26:27.760 --> 0:26:31.800 royalties in its contract, Chad got ten percent. But Guyana 0:26:31.960 --> 0:26:35.040