Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall says the motion put forward by Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) David Patterson seeking full liability coverage for oil spills was “full of errors, wrong, and misconceived.”
Last week, the National Assembly threw out the motion seeking to adopt full-unlimited liability coverage for oil spills and other disasters related to petroleum productions as a condition for approving the Yellowtail development and other developments.
Nandlall, during his weekly programme ‘Issues in the News’ aired on Tuesday evening, said the concept of full liability coverage does not exist in the real world.
“Practically and practicism do not support this concept of an unlimited insurance, the concept is repulsive to reality, no insurance policy, company would issue a policy that has no limit, how much are they going to pay….who will agree to a contract that has limitless liability?”
The Attorney General added, “So the entire basis of his motion, was ‘misconceived’ and flawed and then when they were in government, and he wants this government to introduce that on the licenses,…obviously our government values insurance and as I will explain…. let’s go back to when they are in government…they bring all sorts of things, they move …that they never did in government.”
Minister Nandlall noted that the Liza 1 permit, signed under the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU + AFC) government, had no sort of insurance policy.
As a result, he said the Ali-led administration amended the permit and inserted insurance policies. Insurance policies were also inserted in Liza 2 and Yellowtail licences.
Minister Nandlall stated that the government is presently negotiating with ExxonMobil for a USD$2B insurance coverage.
“Now, it may not be the perfect insurance scheme or policy, but it is far better than they had, which was zero….”
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