Former Public Infrastructure Minister and Member of Parliament (MP), David Patterson on Friday criticized the government’s stance on accepting flaring fees from ExxonMobil. During a press conference hosted by the Alliance for Change (AFC), Patterson vehemently denounced the government’s approach, describing it as allowing foreign companies to pay to pollute Guyana’s pristine environment.
Flaring, the process of burning associated gas during oil production, has drawn widespread condemnation for its harmful environmental impacts over the years. Patterson expressed deep concern over the government’s purported boasting about permitting foreign companies, more particularly, Stabroek Block operator, ExxonMobil, to conduct this practice in Guyana’s territory. “They are paying two pence to pollute our country,” Patterson emphasized, highlighting the incongruity of celebrating such actions as progressive.
“It is nothing to boast about,” Patterson asserted. He contrasted the negligible fees imposed on flaring with the exorbitant profits reaped by oil companies like ExxonMobil. “The money at Exxon is paying us they make about 100 times daily more in production,” he noted whilst underscoring the glaring disparity between the minimal fees collected and the substantial revenues generated by oil production activities.
As mentioned ExxonMobil, a major player in Guyana’s burgeoning oil industry, came under scrutiny for its flaring practices initiated since 2019. It was previously reported that there was the availability of alternative methods such as gas re-injection, however, the company opted for flaring, citing cost and other technical considerations.
In 2023, the company reportedly paid US$9 million to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for flaring excess gas at its offshore operations in the Stabroek Block.
Flaring is natural in gas production, so I ask David Patterson what he can do to neutralise this.
Failing that, I suggest he ask those from mudda africa which has invented so many thing that humans use, (and in which his forbears were captured in the tribal wars by other blacks and sold as slaves) for their advice.