GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge, says the process of selecting an expert to resolve the multi-million-dollar dispute the energy company has with the Guyana government is still ongoing, almost a year after the parties agreed to the initiative.
“We are going through the selection of the third-party expert with the government represented by the Guyana Revenue Authority. That process is ongoing, and we expect to have one selected soon,” Routledge told a news conference.
Alistair Routledge
The parties are seeking to resolve the dispute over the US$214 million in questionable expenses claimed by Exxon, and the selection of a sole expert to intervene in disputes is covered under the Stabroek Block Production Sharing Agreement (PSA).
But there is no established timeline for selecting the sole expert.
An audit conducted by IHS Markit found that of the US$1.67 billion in claims made by ExxonMobil for operational expenses in the Stabroek Block for the period 1999-2017, an estimated US$214M was questionable.
The sole expert is expected to determine whether the US$214 million in questionable expenses, as flagged by IHS Markit, a leading global information and analytics provider that merged with S&P Global on February 28, 2022, to become part of S&P Global, were legitimate.
Both sides are expected to propose candidates for the position. ExxonMobil has long maintained that it intends to recover the entire US$1.678 billion in costs for exploration work done between 1999 and 2017.
However, while those proposals have been made, no agreement has been reached, and Routledge said it is important for the sole expert to have the confidence of both sides.
“The discussions that have been had in the right approach – both sides wanting to make sure that they understand the credentials of the people and the organizations being proposed, and also that they don’t have any conflict of interest. That’s extremely important, I think, to both parties that we are comfortable ultimately with whomever it is that is the sole expert,” he said.
However, if Exxon and GRA fail to select a sole expert, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) may appoint one.
“The next step isn’t arbitration. We would agree to go to the ICC, and they would appoint a sole expert – that is the next step. So, if we can’t agree, then we have a third party identify that sole expert, and then we move forward with that sole expert,” Routledge said.
and then 