Guyana appeal court voids ruling that tied uncapped liability to ExxonMobil permit assurance

GEORGETOWN (CMC): Guyana's Court of Appeal has allowed appeals by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), vacating a 2023 High Court outcome that centred on how much financial assurance must sit behind ExxonMobil's offshore environmental permit.

On the initial record, Justice Sandil Kissoon found the company had contravened its permit by failing to furnish the level of bonding he believed the risk required. He further held that the EPA had failed in its statutory duties when it accepted coverage he still considered too weak.

Working from the premise that the corporation's liability for environmental harm knows no ceiling, he said the permit should demand a matching, uncapped guarantee. He ruled that proposing a US$2 billion facility fell short, instructed the EPA to issue an enforcement notice, and added that the permit risked suspension absent an unlimited instrument within 30 days.

Both appellants sought review. The Court of Appeal suspended the lower orders while the appeal ran its course; the matter was heard in February 2026.

The appellate judges spoke with one voice in reversing Justice Kissoon. ExxonMobil, they repeated, still answers in damages for every loss traceable to its offshore operations, but the law keeps liability analysis separate from deciding how large a guarantee the permit may require. The trial judge blurred those lanes, they said, by insisting that unlimited legal exposure automatically dictated unlimited financial security under the same permit.

The panel added that, under the Environmental Protection Act and the permit text, the EPA alone weighs what quantum of security is fit and may approve it. Justice Kissoon, they concluded, usurped a policy choice Parliament had entrusted to the regulator.

They likewise recorded no proof backing the first-instance view that the insurance programme the EPA approved fell below benchmarks familiar in global petroleum activity. They could find no fault in either side for agreeing to US$2 billion.

Justice Kissoon's entire 2023 slate of orders has been annulled.