Should the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) win the General and Regional Election – just four days away – the party will ensure that the mammoth ExxonMobil Headquarters being built in Ogle, East Coast Demerara, is not funded through the cost oil mechanism in place. This is according to the party’s leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, earlier today.
Cost Oil is the share of production that will be sold by Exxon in order to offset the costs it incurred in the development and operation of the oil field. What is left, is referred to as “Profit Oil”, which will then be split down the middle between the State and Exxon.
Exxon’s investment, therefore, will be recovered. Whether the cost of the headquarters will also be recovered, is unknown. The company has been mum on the issue even as speculations continue to soar.
Jagdeo, this afternoon at his Church Street, Georgetown-office, said that Exxon should build its HQ with its own money.
“Are we paying from that headquarter there? We are not going to pay for that headquarter, I’m telling you this now. If PPP wins office, that big fancy 80 million-dollar building [will] not [be] coming out of cost-oil. If you want to live in there – in a fancy building – they [must] pay for it directly from Houston [Texas],” the politician said.
Exxon’s HQ is being built on 15 acres of land that Ogle Airport Inc. (OAI) leased to Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), the local subsidiary of ExxonMobil. Its construction is being undertaken via a joint-venture between local contractor, Nabi Construction Firm and Kee-Chanona Limited from Trinidad.
OAI leased over 407 acres of State land from Government in 2003. The lease from Government to OAI was supposed to be up in 2028. However, in a Kaieteur News article published on April, 7 2019, the Agency noted that in July 2017, OAI entered a Memorandum of Understanding with EEPGL to sublease the lands for 30 years.
