Dr Jan Mangal, former petroleum advisor to President David Granger, has said he advised government against investing in the development of the now shelved onshore oil and gas supply facility at Crab Island, in Region Six, as the proposal did not go through the due diligence needed for the investment, which would have required billions…
I write in relation to a letter included in the Stabroek News on 28-Nov-2018 with the title `Why would Exxon inflate these costs when it wouldn’t be the one benefitting?’ authored by a Mr Clement Smith. The letter in question makes a number of inaccurate points and I attempt to address these below. In summary,…
Introduction Last week’s column dealt with a few of the more theoretical aspects of the role that “public expectations” play in general economic growth theory and the modelling of natural resources policy management. Today’s column focuses on the specifics of managing these expectations as a development challenge facing Guyana, as it seeks to spend its…
Introduction A number of readers have indicated to me I should have placed much more emphasis on the great extent to which the Permanent Income Hypothesis (PIH) fiscal rule for natural resources revenue management,no longer finds favour, even among its most ardent initial supporters. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a good example of this….
Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 64) Introduction Figures contained in the 2017 financial statements of Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited indicate that the three-party set up of Esso, Hess and CNOOC Nexen will spend well over five hundred billion dollars ($500,000,000,000) up to December 2019. The three companies…
Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded (Part 63) Introduction It has been nearly a month since the last column appeared on October 19 under the title Complex for the White Man, Disdain for Locals. Recent developments have lent an aura of prescience about that column as we witnessed and contrasted the…
In Stabroek News dated November 4, 2018; Minister Winston Jordan exposed the oil experts, who were invited to Guyana via funding unknown, to pronounce on the Green Paper, Sovereign Wealth Fund/ National Resources Fund and suchlike. Except for the disgraceful 2% royalty, the comments by Minister Jordan, conflated with remarks I made as an invitee;…
This is in reference to Clement Smith’s letter in Kaieteur News on October 27 titled “Guyana’s take from oil is larger than many countries”. Clement Smith stated my recent letter is inconsistent with the facts. A copy of this letter can be found here: http://www.oggn.website/2018/10/23/flawed-oil-contract-is-giving-up-more-than-investment-bank-likely-to-generate-in-future-returns. In his letter, the only source of information cited was…
The recent revelations that Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, met with Merrill Lynch, who is likely interested in the investment feature of Guyana’s Natural Resource Fund has exposed some fundamental flaws. This view was shared by Auditor and Financial consultant, Nigel Hinds, who said that the Government’s approach is the ‘minus 101 manner of…
In February 2018, Exxon produced a 20-minute Facebook video in which its stated purpose was to address questions concerning the Oil Contract, Revenues and Taxes. At minute 10, the presenter declaims: Guyana is a frontier country. And, further states that the Guyanese people should be satisfied with the oil contract. Pronouncing Guyana as a “frontier…
