While ExxonMobil Guyana Limited EMGL and its Stabroek Block partners, Hess and CNOOC, continue to enjoy tax exemptions and other benefits from a lopsided deal in Guyana, foreign oil companies operating in Senegal now face the possibility of contract revisions by the new administration to ensure a fairer distribution of benefits for its citizens. On Monday, Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko announced that the government has officially set up a commission that is tasked with reviewing oil and gas contracts that were signed with multinational corporations. African News reported that the PM made the announcement on national television insisting that the team of legal, tax, and energy sector experts will work meticulously to make sure all legal aspects are carefully examined and are aligned with the country’s national interest. Sonko reiterated his government’s ambition to rebalance the energy contracts in the national interest. Back in April, Senegal’s newly elected President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye had revealed plans for a comprehensive audit of the nation’s oil, gas, and mining sectors, and their terms and conditions under which they were handed out by his predecessor. Reuters reported that the announcement followed a campaign promise to renegotiate the terms of oil, gas and mineral contracts with foreign operators in the country.

On June 11, 2024 Senegal officially became an oil and gas producer for the first time after Australian group Woodside Energy announced first oil at its Sangomar project off the African country  S& P Global reported. Phase one of Sangomar, which alongside BP’s massive Greater Tortue Ahmeyim GTA gas project could overhaul the Senegalese economy, will produce 100,000 barrel of crude, according to the Australian oil and gas company.

President Faye has vowed to ensure the nation benefits from its resources that are being extracted by foreign companies. Faye’s announcement looking for a change in a country of approximately 18 million people, strongly contrasts with that of Guyana’s Vice President VP Bharrat Jagdeo who while in opposition promised to renegotiate the lopsided ExxonMobil Guyana Limited EMGL a subsidiary of American oil giant Exxon, but has since changed his tune- even denying that he had ever made such a promise. In Guyana’s case, there is the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement PSA that was signed by the former APNU+AFC Government with Exxon. While Guyanese have long accepted that the deal is lopsided–one that benefits the oil companies more than it does the country,  the PPP/C Government has refused to bring Exxon back to the negotiation table, all while allowing the oil company to ramp up production offshore Guyana.  (Kaieteur News)…[+]

Photo: Guyana’s Vice President VP Bharrat Jagdeo