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the fire which destroyed a section of the Ramada Princess Hotel at Providence, East Bank Demerara almost a month ago.

This is according to Fire Chief (ag) Gregory Wickham, who told the News Room at the sidelines of an event on Tuesday that investigators will continue their probe until the cause is determined.

“Thus far, our investigators were unable to determine the cause of the fire, so it is at that stage where we consider, the origin of that fire to be undetermined which means that the investigation will continue until we actually come up with the cause of the fire,” Wickham said.

The fire started at around 22:47 hrs on September 23 in room 431 which is situated on the fourth floor. At the time, 293 adults and four children were registered at the hotel.

All of the guests, some of whom were trapped on the sixth floor, were safely evacuated.

The Fire Service had dispatched a number of water tenders to the scene after smoke was observed emanating from the eastern side of the building, triggering the fire alarm and sprinkler systems.

A team of 28 firefighters immediately went into action and managed to contain the blaze. The room where the fire started, along with two others, were significantly damaged.

Following the fire, the management of the hotel announced that business will be closed until further notice.

eight of the 14 oil blocks that were put up in the recent auction round. The government is in the process of assessing those bids.

But last month, Venezuela said this bid round was illegal since there are maritime areas pending delimitation between the two countries.

It also noted that any arbitrary concession granted would be “unacceptable” and that “these actions do not generate any type of rights to third parties who participate in such a process.”

In spite of these claims, President of ExxonMobil Guyana Alistair Routledge said the company will continue its business dealings with the Guyana government once the terms are favourable to the company.

During a press conference at the company’s Georgetown Headquarters on Tuesday, Routledge recalled working in Venezuela and having personal dealings with the government there and said he was not fazed.

“We will not be scared away by Venezuela,” Routledge said positively as he shook his head in affirmation. He said ExxonMobil is committed to Guyana for decades to come and it will remain that way.

Routledge told reporters too that although the company submitted a bid through the recent auction, some concerns were raised about the terms.

ExxonMobil is now awaiting a response from the government but said once the bid is accepted, the company is willing to go ahead.

Meanwhile, Routledge said the oil major has offered its feedback on the new Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) to the government and made it clear that the company will not sign it in its current form.

Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo recently said none of the groups seeking to search for and possibly produce oil at new blocks offshore expressed concern about Venezuela’s recent statements rejecting Guyana’s inaugural auction.

Guyana and Venezuela are currently before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) seeking a juridical settlement to the border controversy where Venezuela claims two-thirds of Guyana, including its oil-rich maritime space.

ExxonMobil, undaunted by Venezuela, is also moving ahead with its sixth development in the Stabroek Block – Whiptail.

Only last week, the company submitted its field development plan to the government and said it is happy that the process for development is underway on all regulatory fronts.

When it comes on stream by the end of 2027, there will be a total installed capacity to produce 1.2 million barrels of oil per day and the possibility of 10 Floating Production Storage and Offloading Vessels in the Stabroek Block

disciplinary action now facing the government’s Senior Petroleum Coordinator, Gopnauth Gossai over what the government has said is his unauthorised and unsanctioned engagement with the company.

The Ministry of Natural Resources recently revealed that Gossai was the one who engaged in discussions with ExxonMobil and reduced a US$214 million in questionable spending by its local subsidiary from 1999 to 2017 to US$3 million.

The government has since said that the local authority to deal with the audit findings on spending is the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).

During a press conference on Tuesday at the company’s Kingston, Georgetown headquarters, Routledge said he looks forward to an amicable resolution outside of arbitration.

“I feel very sorry for Mr. Gossai. He was working diligently and in support of the process…unfortunately, the right paperwork didn’t get to the right people.

“He worked with the best of intent,” Routledge said.

He told reporters that ExxonMobil Guyana is in support of more regular and on-time audits, noting that the issues raised now and the confusion surrounding the audit for the period 1999 to 2017, are due to the length of time taken before the audit was done.

While this audit (1999 – 2017) addresses a cost recovery of US$1.6 billion, the second audit currently underway (2018 – 2020) looks at a cost recovery of US$7.2 billion.

Routledge reminded that while the first audit kicked off in 2019, it goes back more than 20 years and it was also started under a different government.

He explained that while the audit process is normal for ExxonMobil with internal processes and audits by its co-venturers ongoing, there was some confusion about which agency in government was handling the audits.

He said ExxonMobil was providing additional documentation it had to retrieve from its archives to Gossai without knowing that those documents should have gone to the GRA.

“We were doing that on a working level with the Ministry and it caused some confusion.

“We now know the GRA is the body and they wrote a letter last week clarifying and asking that we provide them with the documentation,” the ExxonMobil Guyana President said.

He said the process is ongoing and that ExxonMobil will re-engage GRA officials to review audit documents.

“Exxon was of the opinion that we were in contact with the right technical people.

“More recently we got clarity…we don’t know what’s happening behind the doors in government. What’s been made clear now is that we deal with GRA,” Routledge added.

He said the process continues with no formal closure although ExxonMobil provided additional documentation to Gossai to support the spending of US$214 million, allowing it to be brought down to about US$11 million and later, US$3 million.

Those documents are now being submitted to the GRA for their review and ExxonMobil is looking for a favourable outcome.

“We will follow the process.

“Our distinct desire is not to go to arbitration because we all should be clear about what rules are.

“That would be the last resort if we arrive at arbitration,” he explained.

To avoid a recurrence of this, Routledge proposes that all stakeholders catch up on the auditing process and said there is a need to get on a regular cycle of auditing every year.