{"id":60077286,"date":"2025-04-17T18:10:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T17:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?post_type=photo_story&p=60077286"},"modified":"2025-04-17T18:18:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T17:18:55","slug":"exxonmobil-builds-petro-state-in-guyana-amid-environmental-concerns","status":"publish","type":"photo_story","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/exxonmobil-builds-petro-state-in-guyana-amid-environmental-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"ExxonMobil builds \u2018petro-state\u2019 in Guyana, amid environmental concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Georgetown, Guyana\u2019s capital, heavy trucks rumble through streets as oil wealth fuels the construction of bridges, artificial islands and luxury hotels. Foreign workers are already dubbing it \u201cthe new Dubai\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US-based ExxonMobil dominates oil production in Guyana through its subsidiary Esso, leading operations at the Stabroek offshore block alongside Hess and China\u2019s CNOOC. Since discovering massive reserves in 2015, it has expanded rapidly, with production now at 650,000 barrels a day<\/a> and set to double by 2027. But it has also been facing lawsuits and allegations of ignoring environmental rules to boost output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur institutions have been captured by foreign interests. Exxon isn\u2019t the only one, but it\u2019s certainly the most egregious,\u201d says environmentalist Sherlina Nageer, founder of the Greenheart Movement<\/a>, an initiative that advocates alternatives to the oil industry, and one of the main voices opposing fossil fuel exploration in Guyana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nation is solidifying its status as a \u201cpetro-state<\/a>,\u201d with its economy, political decisions, and institutions becoming increasingly intertwined with the oil industry. The line between the state and ExxonMobil is blurring, making it harder to distinguish where one ends and the other begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"Artificial<\/div>
An artificial island built by ExxonMobil at the mouth of the Demerara River in Georgetown, Guyana, to house an oil port (Image: Victor Moriyama \/ InfoAmazonia)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"person<\/div>
A worker walks through an unpaved street in Georgetown (Image: Victor Moriyama \/ InfoAmazonia)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Irregular gas flaring in Guyana<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

ExxonMobil has faced scrutiny for gas flaring \u2014 the burning off of gas produced during oil drilling, which emits large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane \u2014 at Liza Phase 1, the first of three oil fields in operation. Opened in December 2019, the field\u2019s license allows flaring only during maintenance or emergencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet from 2019 to 2023, the company reported 1,298 flaring events, according to data analysed by the Every Last Drop<\/a> project, using SkyTruth satellite monitoring. Additionally, using data from the environmental rights organisation Arayara Institute, the analysis also found that ExxonMobil flared 687 million cubic meters of gas off Guyana\u2019s coast during this period, releasing 1.32 million tons of CO2 \u2014 equal to the yearly emissions of 287,000 cars. Guyana now ranks as the Amazon\u2019s second-largest emitter from flaring, after Ecuador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sherlina Nageer is among activists who say they have gathered evidence of illegal activities using satellite images. In April 2021<\/a>, they alerted the Guyana Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which oversees and licenses the nation\u2019s oil industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One month after the complaint, the EPA revised the oil company\u2019s environmental permit, extending the allowable flaring period<\/a> from three to 60 consecutive days \u2013 a process activists say lacked transparency. The revised permit levies a USD 45 charge for each ton of emitted CO2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/div>
Sherlina Nageer is a key voice opposing fossil fuel exploration in Guyana. \u201cOur institutions have been captured by foreign interests,\u201d she says (Image: Victor Moriyama \/ InfoAmazonia)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow the government is basically saying, \u2018Pollute as much as you want, provided you can pay for it,\u2019\u201d says Vincent Adams, a former director of Guyana\u2019s Environmental Protection Agency and an official at the U.S. Department of Energy<\/a> for 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he assumed leadership of the Guyanese agency in 2018, Adams says he inherited an institution ill-equipped to regulate the oil industry: \u201cThere wasn\u2019t even one engineer trained in oil.\u201d He recalls the agency functioned merely as a \u201crubber stamp\u201d for requests from ExxonMobil and its partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, as Esso sought a license for the Payara field, the country\u2019s third oil project, Adams demanded financial guarantees for environmental damages. He says all three project studies were nearly identical and warned that a spill could reach Venezuela\u2019s coast and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adams left the agency in August 2020, with the change of government in Guyana, and recalls that only a month later the licenses were granted. \u201cWhen I left, they took over,\u201d says the engineer, who has since become one of the main critics of the current oil exploration model in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfavorable contract for Guyana<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Controversies over Guyana\u2019s oil deals began well before licenses were issued. After ExxonMobil\u2019s 2015 discovery, the government drafted the Stabroek Block contract<\/a> from scratch. It stipulates that up to 75% of monthly revenue will cover the costs of the companies involved, with the remainder split 50\/50 with the government \u2014 giving Guyana a 12.5% share. The deal also includes a 2% royalty, far below rates in countries like Brazil (up to 15%<\/a>) or the U.S. (over 16%<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very bad contract that deprives us of a lot of resources,\u201d said<\/a> Guyana\u2019s former president, Donald Ramotar. During his tenure from 2011 to 2015, ExxonMobil made its first major discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he shares the same political affiliation as President Irfaan Ali, he supports revising the contract clauses. Ali acknowledges the agreement\u2019s unfavorable terms but insists that the \u201csanctity of the contract<\/a>\u201d must be upheld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Workers<\/div>
Workers lay a concrete floor at a port facility in Georgetown, Guyana (Image: Victor Moriyama \/ InfoAmazonia)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Frederick Collins, head of Guyanese anti-corruption organisation Transparency Institute, is a vocal critic of the Exxon contract, calling it \u201cstrongly favourable to Exxon\u201d. His group has published<\/a> several critiques and sued<\/a> the government and the oil company over the lack of financial guarantees for spills in the contract \u2014 and won. In May 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA\u2019s failure had put the country at \u201cgrave risk of a calamitous disaster\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esso and the Guyanese government appealed the ruling, estimating the cost of environmental damage coverage at USD 2 billion. In June, the appeals court sided with them and suspended<\/a> the previous decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collins called the sum derisory to address the oil spill\u2019s impact. He cited the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill, which resulted in BP and its insurers paying USD 69 billion<\/a> in reparations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

InfoAmazonia repeatedly reached out to contact ExxonMobil, its Guyanese subsidiary Esso, as well as Hess, CNOOC, and the Guyanese government. None responded by the time of publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communities are concerned<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"man<\/div>
A fisher in the Hope Beach community. The place resembles a graveyard of boats, abandoned due to the drop in the supply of fish after the start of oil exploration activities in the country (Image: Victor Moriyama \/ InfoAmazonia)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Coastal and Indigenous communities near Georgetown are apprehensive about the expanding oil industry. In Hope Beach, 25 kilometres from Georgetown, sits a graveyard of abandoned boats. \u201cThey were used for fishing,\u201d says fisherman Amran Samad, \u201cbut people put them up for sale and nobody wanted to buy them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil extraction has disrupted local fishing, according to locals. They report that heavy ship traffic and vibrations from offshore operations drive away shoals. Meanwhile, an influx of cheap imported fish, linked to the arrival of more foreigners, has intensified competition and reduced demand for the local catch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In St. Denny\u2019s, an Indigenous community 100 kilometers from Georgetown, Councillor Donnet Frederick showcased a vegetable greenhouse funded by carbon credit sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur community received 80 million Guyanese dollars [about USD 400,000] from carbon credit projects. This money was used to create a farm, build a greenhouse and renew our production,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2022, Guyana signed an agreement with Hess Corporation, part of the ExxonMobil-led consortium, to sell 37.5 million carbon credits over a decade. The project encompasses all of the country\u2019s forests, covering nearly 90% of its territory and home to Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can\u2019t just pour money into communities without considering the cultural and environmental impacts<\/blockquote>Trevon Baird, professor of the University of Guyana<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

By 2032, Hess is required to pay<\/a> the Guyanese government a total of USD 750 million, with a commitment that 15% of the funds will be allocated to traditional communities. But Indigenous leader Mario Hastings claims that the communities were seduced by financial promises and were not properly consulted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hastings served for several years as the chief of the Kako village in the Essequibo region, an area recently embroiled in a territorial dispute with Venezuela<\/a>. He said that in 2022, while still in office, he participated in a council meeting of chiefs in the capital, where the carbon project proposal was introduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe received numerous pages in English, filled with technical jargon, and they demanded an immediate response,\u201d says Hastings. Guyana\u2019s Indigenous communities primarily speak their native languages, not English, in their daily lives. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t present the proposal to our people. I refused, saying I couldn\u2019t do that to my people,\u201d he recalls. Ultimately, Hastings was overruled by the council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, the Association of Amerindian Peoples (APA) and other groups reported<\/a> that Guyana\u2019s carbon project violated Indigenous safeguards by including all national forests in its certification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/div>
(Data source: Arayara, RAISG via InfoAmazonia \/ Map: Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Every Last Drop project has also found that, alongside offshore production, there are onshore exploration areas that overlap with 13 Indigenous territories and one nature reserve in Guyana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anthropologist Trevon Baird, a professor of the University of Guyana, questions the carbon credit concept of \u201cprogress,\u201d warning against the plan\u2019s methods. \u201cYou can\u2019t just pour money into communities without considering the cultural and environmental impacts,\u201d he says. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From colony to oil: foreign exploitation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After centuries of colonisation and decades of dictatorship that ended only in 1992, Guyana remained poor and dependent on agriculture. Foreign oil companies drilled more than 40 dry wells before ExxonMobil\u2019s breakthrough in 2015, just after a presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ExxonMobil had nearly withdrawn their operations, sidelining the country for some years. Shell, which held a 50% stake in the Stabroek Block, abandoned the project in 2014, just before the pivotal drilling. Since then, over 30 discoveries<\/a> have revealed an estimated 11 billion barrels<\/a> of oil, valued at USD 1 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite 65% of GDP<\/a> growth in 2022 being driven by oil, poverty remains widespread in Guyana, with 43% of the population living on less than USD 5.50 a day, according to the UN Economic Council. Unemployment stands at 14%, among the highest in Latin America<\/a>. Major infrastructure projects, like the Demerara River bridge, are being built by Chinese firms using mostly foreign labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"men<\/div>
Chinese workers leave the construction site for the new bridge over the Demerara River in Georgetown (Image: Victor Moriyama \/ InfoAmazonia)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

With the discovery of oil, ExxonMobil began to invest heavily in advertising to shape its image in the country. In a downtown Georgetown shopping mall parking lot, a comedian announced that the oil company would distribute 100,000 Guyanese dollars (about USD 478) to each adult citizen \u2014 equivalent to less than two minimum wages here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to give Exxon a round of applause because they are transforming this country. That\u2019s why we\u2019re going to put 100,000 in each of your pockets,\u201d he stated at an event attended by this reporter in November 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the payments to citizens were made directly by the Guyanese government. Funded by oil revenues, it represents the first such disbursement since ExxonMobil began operations in the country over five years ago, and the last currently planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power outages are constant<\/a> in Georgetown. Despite the large reserves, most of the oil extracted in Guyana goes to the United States and European countries<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re used to power cuts, but over the years they\u2019ve become more frequent,\u201d says resident Minerva Cort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"girl<\/div>
Jamala, daughter of Minerva Cort, lights a candle during a routine blackout at their home in the Campbellville neighbourhood of Georgetown, Guyana (Image: Victor Moriyama \/ InfoAmazonia)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"man<\/div>
A man walks in a landfill on the edges of Georgetown (Image: Victor Moriyama \/ InfoAmazonia)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, funded by oil revenues, Guyana is planning Silica City \u2014 a futuristic, high-tech urban hub 40 kilometres from Georgetown. While details remain vague, President Irfaan Ali has promoted it as a resilient, modern and sustainable city \u201cahead of its time,\u201d in a 2024 public address<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grandiose future touted by the national government and oil companies clashes sharply with the daily reality of many Guyanese. More than 90% of Guyana\u2019s population lives below sea level. Georgetown\u2019s canals, designed to control tidal effects, are choked with sewage, fast-food containers, and soft-drink bottles. Tap water is heavily contaminated<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, the city\u2019s highest point remains the ever-growing landfill. From atop this mountain of waste, one can gain a privileged view of a future that never comes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was first published on <\/em>InfoAmazonia<\/em><\/a>, and this shortened and edited version appears here with permission. The story is part of the Every Last Drop series, a project with the support of the <\/em>Global Commons Alliance<\/em><\/a>, sponsored by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. It was produced by <\/em>InfoAmazonia\u2019s Geojournalism Unit<\/em><\/a>, which also has the support of the <\/em>Serrapilheira Institute<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guyana\u2019s oil boom, driven by the US oil major, has brought wealth \u2014 but also rising inequality, weaker environmental oversight, and growing foreign influence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":60077307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[764],"tags":[50040322,50029971,573],"country":[50002595],"class_list":["post-60077286","photo_story","type-photo_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","tag-natural-resources","tag-oil","tag-oil-spill","country-guyana"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nExxonMobil builds \u2018petro-state\u2019 in Guyana, amid environmental concerns<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Guyana\u2019s oil boom, driven by the US oil major, has brought wealth \u2014 but also rising inequality, weaker environmental oversight, and growing foreign influence\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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