The Grenada government Wednesday reiterated its decision to terminate its production sharing agreement (PSA) with the Russian-backed Global Petroleum Group (GPG) even as the company said it has given St. George’s seven days to rescind its decision.
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell speaking at a news conference, which he used to address the nation on the issue, described the ongoing dispute as a ‘matter of national importance…that concerns our natural resources, our patrimony, and the duty of your government to act at all times in the best interests of the citizens of Grenada. ‘It is a matter that every citizen of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique deserves to understand fully and in plain terms, and so today, I am speaking plainly with you,’ he added. Watch video
On Monday, a government statement had said that Prime Minister Mitchell would address the nation on the issue and that the Office of the Attorney General and the Technical Working Group would provide further details on the factual circumstances which led to the Government’s decision.
Attorney General Claudette Joseph reiterated at the news conference that Grenada had acted ‘lawfully, responsibly, and in the national interest’ and after 18 years ‘and after every reasonable opportunity given to GPG, the government had a duty to the people of Grenada to bring these agreements to an end. Grenada deserves better, and we are moving forward with confidence and with respect for the rule of law’.
But in an August 3, 2026 letter addressed to Prime Minister Mitchell and signed by GPG director Eduard Vasilyev, the company said that the government’s attempt to end the agreements is ‘inconsistent with the contractual rights and obligations of the parties and is without legal effect.’
GPG also contends that the government ignored the dispute resolution provisions contained in the PSA by proceeding with the termination before arbitration could determine whether the company had breached its obligations.
‘We highlight again that until such is concluded, the PSA remains in full force,’ GPG said, insisting that the agreement cannot legally be terminated while the contractual dispute resolution process remains outstanding.
But Prime Minister Mitchell said arbitration is one way ‘this matter could develop’ adding ‘it is still perfectly open to the government of Grenada and GPG to sit down and settle this matter’.
Mitchell recalled that the chairman of the Technical Working Group, Nazim Burke, a former finance minister here, had indicated that efforts to get GPG to sit down and discuss the issues surrounding the project had failed due to the fact that the oil and gas company had said it would only speak to the relevant government minister.
‘When the Cabinet of Grenada appoints a committee of distinguished Grenadians to treat with a subject matter and you are formally notified of that fact by the Attorney General of Grenada and you write back to the State of Grenada to say you are not talking to this person or that person, you’re backing up a wrong tree, especially if I’m the Prime Minister of the country.
‘So we need to be clear to our partners. The government of Grenada is elected by the people of Grenada and the government of Grenada are entrusted as stewards with managing the natural resources of the people of Grenada.
‘So when the Cabinet of the government of Grenada tells you these are the persons appointed by the Cabinet and you need to treat with them, you come to the meetings. You respond to the requests to meet,’ Mitchell said, adding that he is ‘happy that there is some alacrity now being shown on the part of GPG to respond.
‘So arbitration is just one route. If that’s the route they choose, we obviously will comply with our bargain. It is perfectly still open for them to sit with us, for us to talk, to amicably part ways, for them to demonstrate that they have credible partners who can do what they are contractually obligated to do’.
He said that under the agreement the company was supposed to have drilled two wells by 2017, adding that this has not been the case and had GPG shown as they have claimed that there were commercial deposits, the partners, the oil companies that were mentioned, who are very good at deep sea offshore drilling, would be happy to look for it.
‘Let us make no mistake, energy and the need for energy is growing at a phenomenal rate. The impact of artificial intelligence and its voracious appetite for energy is being felt by everyone. The wars that are taking place all over the world have severely impacted our ability to get cheap fuel.
‘So if there are commercial quantities of oil and gas in our waters, trust me….this is not a joke anymore. We have waited, we’ve reviewed, we’ve sought to engage, and I think anybody who knows my style would recognise that we attempt to be conciliatory first,’ Prime Minister Mitchell said.
He said the government had attempted to discuss, to settle, and to agree to move forward first, ‘but we are not going to wait another 18 years.
‘And therefore, we certainly welcome the opportunity if they wish to be earnest brokers. The government and people are being earnest brokers. But the message has to be sent clearly, and I think this is important.
‘The oil and gas industry is not GPG. And it is not the four blocks that we are treating with. There’s a lot more territory. And a lot of, in fact, all of the work that is being done is to develop the regulatory framework, the economic investment model, the incentives model, the investment in our human capacity, because you’d appreciate, … we don’t have yet an oil and gas industry,’
Mitchell said that the 18-year saga with GPG ‘is just a footnote in that journey and so we have to think of the bigger picture and what’s in the best interests of Grenada, Carriacou an Petite Martinique.
‘But we are confident that we have received solid legal and technical advice on this. We have, and I will say this, left me, I probably would have taken this decision from the time I entered into office. But as I said, I don’t counsel myself. I sought counsel from older, wiser people, far more experienced in this matter.
‘And we stayed our hands and we ensured that we followed the process. We gave an opportunity for GPG to engage. We gave them the notices, etc., etc. So this is not a hastily ill-conceived decision that we’ve rushed and importantly, the fact that we’re here telling you about it is a sign of our commitment to transparency on this issue,’ said Prime Minister Mitchell, who is also an attorney.
He said that the government owes it to the next generation of Grenadians to develop the oil and gas sector and will ‘do everything possible to allow them to benefit, if in fact the commercial quantity of oil and gas that partners would wish to invest with us and take out of the ground for the benefit of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique’.
In 2008, the government provided GPG with a licence over 11 offshore blocks to explore for oil and gas and five years later, the company was granted a development licence and signed a production sharing agreement.
Mitchell said that the development licence and production sharing agreement provided the legal permission and the guidelines to actually bring that oil and gas out of Grenadian waters and to share the proceeds with the country.
‘Grenadians were told that beneath our waters lay the foundation of a new and prosperous era, that oil and gas would bring jobs, revenue, and a better life for our families. Citizens, that was 18 years ago.
‘And so we now must ask ourselves, where is the oil and gas production? Where are the jobs? and where is the revenue that was promised to our people?. The simple answer is that 18 years later, there is no production, there are no jobs, and there are no revenue to the state of Grenada.’
Mitchell said that since coming to office in 2022 his administration ‘did what every responsible government would do.
‘We sought the records. We sought the development plans. We examined carefully, thoughtfully, and deliberately whether GPG had lived up to its obligations. What we found was deeply troubling, and in prior public statements I made reference to this.
‘We inherited minimal records, and no proper handover of Grenada’s files or obligations on this matter. Upon closer examination, we found a company that had failed in several material respects to meet its obligations to our country. GPG did not complete the minimum work it committed to do.
‘GPG did not produce a development plan that met the standard of the agreement or the standard that the international oil and gas industry expects. And importantly, GPG could not show that it had the funds or the money in hand to carry out the work it kept promising to do.’
He said GPG has spoken publicly about the scale of its investment in this project, while by its own accounting, continuing to seek outside partners to help fund it.
But Mitchell said that under the terms it signed with the government GPG was required to report its expenditure to the government every month.
‘It never did so. Without those reports, this government is not in a position to confirm any figure that GPG has put forward. And we will not repeat numbers that we cannot ourselves verify.
‘A company that will not account for what it says it has spent certainly cannot be trusted that it will spend what it proposes to spend,’ Mitchell said, adding that many would question why did his administration took so long to take the decision to terminate the contracts.
‘I will answer this directly. We chose not to act in haste,’ he said, noting that the Technical Working Group was established in 2022 with ‘a clear mandate to assess the oil and gas potential of our waters and to see that any development coming out of our oil and gas industry benefits the citizens and the people of Grenada.
‘Since 2023, that technical working group has engaged directly with GPG. We requested the updated development plans and the technical documentation necessary to assess whether this project could ever deliver for our country.
‘We extended every reasonable opportunity. Grenada notified GPG both formally of every breach of the agreement …we gave them the opportunity to respond in writing and in person. GPG has failed to remedy those breaches,’ Prime Minister Mitchell said.