Financial Times: How Guyana can avoid the curse of oil – The commodity can bring both wealth and trouble and it is easy to think of countries that have been damaged by its discovery

The hottest new prospect for the world’s oil industry is Guyana, a small, relatively poor, country on the north-eastern coast of Latin America. Over the past year, a series of discoveries by ExxonMobil have identified 3.2bn barrels of oil in the Stabroek block around 120 miles offshore. Given Exxon’s traditional caution, the actual reserves could…

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People pressure can force changes to Exxon contract – Jan Mangal -says 2% royalty way below global standard

Stating that the 2% royalty on oil from ExxonMobil was way below global standards and that the tax regime should have been greater, Presidential Advisor on Petroleum, Dr Jan Mangal says pressure from the citizenry has the potential to influence government to revise the contract with the American company. “Don’t underestimate the power that people…

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