GEORGETOWN, GUYANA (CU)_ According to the central bank, Guyana is projected to make more money this year from its production share of offshore oil exports than it would from gold, bauxite, forestry, or any other industry combined.
Gobind Ganga, the governor of the central bank, told The Associated Press that the production sharing agreement with American ExxonMobil, American Hess Oil, and China’s National Offshore Oil Company will give the nation an estimated $1.1 billion from the 13 million barrels of oil it is entitled to this year.
Exxon retrieved the first cargo of oil from the bottom in 2019, four years after it had reported a significant find around 120 miles offshore Guyana, in the small South American nation that houses the headquarters of the 15-member Caribbean Community.
More than 30 successful wells have previously been drilled by the consortium, mostly from the Liza Field in the Stabroek Block. Exxon has stated that the current production, which is around 350,000 barrels per day, is anticipated to more than double when two additional oil fields come online over the following three years.
Prior to the start of oil production, the majority of the nation’s exports were rice and gold. With high oil prices around the world, the nation anticipates a windfall from both direct oil sales and the extensive industrial support system, which includes the building of onshore infrastructure.
“This is historically the largest amount of revenue we will earn from any single sector this year. This is very obvious with the price of oil today,” Ganga said. Finance Minister Ashni Singh recently projected that gross domestic product would grow by 56% this year, by far the fastest pace in the hemisphere.
Most of the major producers have rushed to secure oil blocks, with Repsol of Spain, Tullow oil of the United Kingdom, and several others either purchasing existing oil blocks or negotiating their own, in response to Exxon’s 2015 announcement that it had discovered some of the world’s lightest crude oil.
Companies near Suriname have also identified significant amounts of oil and gas in the basin, which the U.S. Geological Survey estimates to contain at least 16 billion barrels of oil, and commercial oil and gas reserves have been found in two additional blocks that border Exxon’s two blocks.
