ExxonMobil boasts of paying US$250M in taxes to Guyana but walked away with over US$10B
Feb 24, 2025
Kaieteur News- ExxonMobil Limited Guyana (EMGL), the operator of the Stabroek Block has been placed in the spotlight recently for not paying its fair share of taxes here, but handing over 15% of its earnings to the Bahamas, where the company is legally registered.
President EMGL, Alistair Routledge
In defending this state of affairs at a recent press conference, Country Manager, Alistair Routledge said it would be incorrect to say the company was not paying taxes to the government of Guyana.
He pointed out, “As far as paying taxes though in the country, I do want to be clear that while we don’t specifically pay corporate income tax, we do pay other taxes, like withholding taxes and royalties…we actually paid $49.5B in taxes as ExxonMobil Guyana to the GRA in 2023.” This amounts to approximately US$250M.
He said the final number for 2024 is not yet available, however it would be incorrect to say that the company does not pay taxes here.
While Routledge did not deny that EMGL pays taxes to the Bahamas, he urged that Guyana should focus instead on how the oil deal is delivering benefits to the country.
“What’s important though ultimately for the investment decisions for the country and for the partnership is how do the contract deliver money for the country, it’s what the PSA is all about and do we comply with all the local taxes which we do,” the Exxon boss stated.
Kaieteur News had reported that the since oil production commenced in December 2019, the country lost over US$10B in taxes to the Stabroek Block Co-Venturers, as a result of the tax holiday granted by the 2016 Petroleum Agreement. During the same period, the country’s Natural Resource Fund (NRF) received payments totaling just over US$6B, inclusive of profits and royalty.
According to the December 2024 NRF report, a total of US$6,049,759,409 was paid into the NRF since 2019, including US$786,190,162 in royalty. This therefore means that Guyana and Exxon shared approximately US$10.5B in profits during the period.
It can further be deduced a whopping US$42B in revenue was generated between December 2019 and December 2024, since 75% of the total revenue was deducted by ExxonMobil for cost recovery. As such, at a 25% tax rate, it would mean that Guyana lost over US$10B in taxes to the Stabroek Block partners alone in five years. The Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) between the GoG and ExxonMobil does not require the company to pay any corporate taxes.
The contract states in Article 15.1 that the Contractor (ExxonMobil Guyana Limited) as well as its affiliates shall not be subjected to tax, value-added tax, excise tax, duty, fee, charge, or impost in respect of income derived from petroleum operations, property held or transactions except as specified under the agreement.
Further, Article 15.4 states that the sum equivalent to the taxes owed by the company will be paid by the Minister responsible for Petroleum to the Commissioner General of the GRA. It should be noted that the contract also allows for the issuing of a receipt to ExxonMobil, indicating that it has met the local tax requirements to avoid the burden of double taxation.
(ExxonMobil boasts of paying US$250M in taxes to Guyana but walked away with over US$10B)
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