Though it is a well-established fact that El Nino, a natural climatic phenomenon, is contributing to higher temperatures in many parts of the world, some critics of oil and gas are blaming it on ExxonMobil’s operations located more than 120 miles from Guyana’s coastline. Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo recently deemed such a narrative “idiotic” at best, while urging citizens to appraise themselves of the facts.
The chief policymaker for Guyana’s oil sector noted that the heat wave being experienced is an undeniable fact. He emphatically stated however that it has nothing to do with Exxon’s operations in the Stabroek Block, where two floating, production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs) are producing around 400,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
In fact, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) recently noted that Earth just had the hottest September on record – and by a record-breaking margin too.
WMO’s Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas, in an October 5 notice, also stated that since June, the world has experienced unprecedented heat on land and sea. “The temperature anomalies are enormous – far bigger than anything we have ever seen in the past…What is especially worrying is that the warming El Niño event is still developing, and so we can expect record-breaking temperatures to continue for months, with cascading impacts on our environment and society,” the official said.
In light of the evidence that points to El Niño as being the driver behind the hot and dry conditions, Dr. Jagdeo said it is an act of madness to blame Guyana for this state of affairs.
“Can you imagine Glenn Lall is saying that the heat wave is caused by Exxon’s operations in Guyana, can you imagine that? The heat wave that is happening around the world, and he is saying we caused this,” the Vice President said.
Since 2020, Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall has been one of the most prominent critics of the government’s handling of the oil industry. He usually shares his exaggerated views via TikTok videos and radio shows. In his most recent radio programme, Lall blamed Guyana’s oil sector for the heat wave.
Mr. Jagdeo observed that local and regional activist groups have employed varying tactics to diminish or kill the government’s ability to bring an end to power outages via the Gas-to-Energy project. Irrespective of those efforts, the Vice President insisted that the government will continue implementing its plan to transform the country’s electricity system.
