In the last few weeks, Washington think tanks, financial services analysts in New York and London, and publications from the New York Times to the Petroleum Argus, have all found a reason to express a view on Guyana, the Caribbean nation they now see as set to become one of the Western hemisphere’s major oil producers.
It is the first sign of the remarkable transformational change being brought about by the heightened levels of offshore exploration now taking place in the region. It makes possible imagining a Caribbean, a decade from now, in which nations other than Trinidad are energy rich, are net exporters of oil and gas, and are having to address the problems associated with wealth in ways previously no thought had been given to.
As is now well known, ExxonMobil announced last June a “world class” oil find in its Liza-1 well in deep water in its Stabroek block, some 120 miles off Guyana’s coast. It then confirmed in January this year, good-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs in a separate 10-mile distant well, known as Payara-1. In addition, it has said recently that it had found an additional high quality, deeper reservoir directly below the Liza field; announced that it was preparing to drill a further offshore well, and has indicated that it was looking forward to continuing to evaluate “the broader exploration potential on the block and the greater Liza area.”
