A US$2.6B insurance policy that was given to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), has come in for further scrutiny by the relevant authorities. This was confirmed today with Central Bank’s Governor, Dr. Gobind Ganga.
The official noted that a meeting was held earlier today with representatives of the EPA, the Energy Department, the Insurance Association and Insurance Brokers regarding insurance policies for oil companies.
Ganga said, “As the regulator for the insurance sector, we informed the officials that our legislation is quite clear, it requires anyone who is in need of insurance to go through our insurance brokers. That is the law…Some time back, we had put an ad in the newspapers which said that all oil companies must abide by our laws and utilize any licensed insurance company or broker to get whatever insurance they need…This way, some local content is preserved too.”
Further to this, Dr Ganga said that the relevant authorities were also informed of some key things they should look for in the insurance policy. “So they will look at it now and scrutinize it,” he added.
In the case of EEPGL’s insurance policy, the Guyana Standard was able to confirm with the EPA that it was not had through a local insurance broker, even though it comes from an internationally recognised UK insurance company. The EPA is expected to speak with Exxon on this front.
