By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News |
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) and Chairman of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Aubrey Norton, is demanding that the Government of Guyana implement new fiscal terms, mandatory ring-fencing, and updated contract models for all future offshore oil developments now that the Stabroek Block has been fully derisked.
Speaking during the party’s weekly press conference on Monday, August 31, 2026, Norton argued that with ExxonMobil and its co-venturers having largely recouped their initial capital investments across approved developments, Guyana must discard outdated fiscal concessions and protect the sovereign wealth of future generations.
Derisked Basin and the Case Against Rolling Subsidies
Norton noted that while the initial 1999 exploration agreement and the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) were designed to attract risk capital into an unproven basin, the presence of over 11.6 billion barrels of recoverable oil equivalent completely changes Guyana’s negotiating leverage:
- Profit Share Dynamics: Guyana’s effective revenue take has risen from roughly 12.5% to 39.8% as initial capital expenditures on earlier projects have amortized.
- Risk of Profit Dilution: Without project-specific ring-fencing, ExxonMobil can utilize revenues from producing fields to cover capital expenditures on newly proposed eighth and ninth development projects, artificially suppressing Guyana’s profit oil share.
- New Contractual Frameworks: Norton stressed that the State must stop binding future offshore projects to the terms of the 2016 PSA, urging the administration to deploy new modalities that secure a higher national take.
“We have paid off the initial investment and we should not now be tied to that old agreement in future investments,” Norton stated. “The first agreement was to attract investment and it worked. But we know we have at least 11.6 billion barrels of oil now. We should get expert advice and come up with new contracts to ensure that yes, Exxon recovers on those, but that we get our fair share.”
Anti-Corruption Safeguards and Resource Distribution
Responding to remarks by President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali that the government is consulting international advisors on future financing arrangements, Norton contended that securing higher oil revenues is useless without eliminating public-sector corruption:
- Tackling Graft: Norton warned that expanding national oil revenues will fail to improve citizen welfare if state revenues are siphoned off through inflated contracts, state-backed mega farms, and political patronage.
- Equitable Allocation: He pointed to the PNC/R-APNU economic manifesto, arguing for structured resource redistribution policies that translate extractive wealth directly into improved public services, poverty alleviation, and higher living standards for ordinary Guyanese.
“One of my big concerns: I want our income to increase, but if you increase income with thief men, you still ain’t gon get,” Norton remarked. “If for every $10 billion, $6 billion goes to ministers and their cronies and they set up mega farms, then the people wouldn’t benefit. The government has an obligation to negotiate real benefits and eliminate corruption so Guyanese enjoy a better quality of life.”
