As if the transformation that Guyana has undergone since the 2015 announcement by ExxonMobil that the country had made its first oil find has not been sufficiently impactful, since that time, the portents for the country’s oil and gas sector, going forward, are becoming increasingly pronounced, according to a December 31 Oil Price.com article authored by the energy writer, Matthew Smith.
Titled, ‘Guyana’s Oil Boom Will Only Accelerate’, the 2023 article notes that even as the country’s first oil field is already yielding up to 360,000 barrels per day, ExxonMobil’s pursuits have already uncovered 11 billion barrels in the Stabroek Block. Taken in isolation, these numbers mean little to Guyanese, the hoped for most important beneficiaries of the oil bonanza, though Smith’s article, which describes Guyana as the likely “last great frontier of the offshore oil boom,” puts it into perspective. At home, political speculation continues to be rife as to whether the longer term management of the country’s oil resources will be sufficiently prudent to deliver optimal returns to a country that has spent its entire life up until now in poverty.
