Jagdeo wants to pump more, “That’s the strategy” -VP

Once there is oil, Jagdeo will be pumping as much as he can. Installed Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo during his three-hour-long press conference Friday, August 19, 2022, reinforced his regime’s position on the non-renegotiation of the Exxon contract.

Renegotiation had formed the heart of the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) election campaign in the 202 General and Regional Elections: “I’ve made it clear we’re not renegotiating the contract now. I’ve explained the contract is lopsided and no new contract will have those terms.”

PPP Manifest Excerpt: “Immediately” is now more than two years and counting

As part of his reasons why the PPP has reneged on its campaign promise the Vice President (VP) stated he has now discovered that Guyana does not have the investment capital to “open up these opportunities”. He said that for such a project Guyana does not have the magnitude of the capital needed.

He noted that total deposits in the banking system locally is only one-tenth and what is needed for the current four FPSOs”. (Floating production storage and offloading vessels) He noted that to renegotiate the Exxon contract now would be to kill momentum in the industry. “We have to leave enough incentives to allow people to invest and get a decent return”, a reference to the “lopsided” contract in Exxon’s favor according to the VP.



In attempting to argue why this is another failed campaign promise but a good thing, Jagdeo said, “Now the momentum’s getting strong…we can’t lose the momentum.”  He says instead of renegotiating, “instead of four FPSO there is a need for ten FPSOs” to pump as much oil as possible and monetize it.

“If we kill momentum, we’d kill off the fledgling growth now in our private sector – industrializing, preparing for the future. We need to extract this natural resource as quickly as possible, and then convert it into monetary assets, from a physical asset into monetary assets.” The VP argues that others are pumping as much as they can and we need to do the same.

More, In The Ring.