Exxon says it acted in good faith; cooperated with Gov’t’ on audits

See below the full statement from ExxonMobil:

Auditing an oil and gas joint venture operator’s expenses is a standard process by co-venturers and governments to ensure only appropriate costs are charged. It’s normal for auditors to highlight focus areas by sharing a draft report that is later addressed with additional documentation. Our experience is that typically, very few, if any, costs are ultimately rejected, reflecting the integrity and quality of our accounting activities.

The Government has audit rights under Article 23 and Annex C of the Stabroek Petroleum Agreement. We have acted in good faith and co-operated with the Government and their consultants appointed for the cost recovery audit of the 1999-2017 years.

We have supplied responses and documents to the issues raised in the draft audit report prepared for the Government by their consultant. We now await a formal response from the Government, after which we will enter into further dialogue as necessary.