Opinion
Could Guyana escape the natural resource curse? Part 5: economic research capacity and the oil contract
Making prediction in a complex and nonlinear world often involves identifying initial conditions and then sequentially reasoning (or solving) forward. One way of knowing how well Guyana will do with its newfound oil and gas resources is to consider the initial conditions that exist in the country today. In this column and future ones, I…
Trotman must make the ExxonMobil contract public
I thank the Ministry of Natural Resources for a courteous response to my recent letter (‘Exxon’s environmental record does not bear scrutiny’ SN, March 8). However an assurance that the government is “carefully and assiduously” building the capacity of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Marine Administration Department and the Civil Defence Commission rather misses…
What is downstream?
Downstream is the processing and selling of refined products in the oil and gas business. These products just do not include gasoline and diesel, but a whole gamut of products as outlined below. The “super majors” like ExxonMobil are involved in many elements of these processes as joint venture partners in hundreds of money-spinning projects. This…
Definition of Dutch Disease, Midstream and Downstream activities
Dutch Disease explained Does a person have it? Definitely not, it is not a medical condition; it is an economic condition. In the 1960s, much natural gas was found off the coast of Holland. By the 1970s, the oil and gas rush in that country had raised the value of the DUTCH Guilders (the name of the…
How oil can place our democracy at grave risk
Guyanese should understand the goal of the oil and gas contractors: drill, extract and burn all the oil and gas resources it can acquire whenever it can in a game to balance the demand and supply globally. Guyana is just a small fish in this big pond and this is why we must always put…
Oil agreement and the President
On February 14th, the third anniversary of the Cummingsburg Accord which masterminded the victory of the APNU+AFC coalition at the 2015 general elections, President Granger was asked whether the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) between his government and ExxonMobil subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEGPL) would be renegotiated. His answer did not rise…
Securing advances on oil revenues should be considered – US-based business professor
Seeking advances on future revenue from ExxonMobil should be under discussion, according to United States-based Guyanese business professor and accountant Floyd Haynes, who says the benefits for a developing nation like ours are incalculable and can outweigh the disadvantages “I think it should be considered. You are borrowing against future revenues. There are …benefits to…
Guyana Is About to Open Up Pandora’s Barrel – Expats hold the key to whether its big offshore oil deposits bring riches — or ruin.
Wedged between Brazil and Venezuela, Guyana could easily go unnoticed. It has fewer than 750,000 people and a per capita income of $4,300, half the regional average, qualifying it as the hemisphere’s third-poorest nation. At the moment, Guyana also might be its luckiest. Having struck big oil offshore starting in 2015, industry experts reckon total reserves at around 2 billion…
Diaspora seen as pivotal to Guyana’s oil future
Whether Guyana becomes “immensely rich or just another Trump-hole” from oil revenues depends largely on its ability to attract specialty experience and competencies in industry and sectors here, says business website Bloomberg. “Guyana could attenuate the brain drain by reaching out to its diaspora,” Bloomberg yesterday reported. “There are more than 100 reported expatriate organizations,…
Correct ExxonMobil contract …or it will be an uphill struggle to get other companies to do better
Chartered Accountant Nigel Hinds is pleading, once again, with the Government of Guyana and ExxonMobil to negotiate the “lopsided” Petroleum Sharing Contract (PSA) that they signed in 2016. Hinds said that along with the many ills of the contract, the APNU+AFC government needs to realise that if it does not fix the contract, other companies…