Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo says his government is not interested in having Guyana rebranded “the next Qatar.” Why be a Qatar when that nation is 18 times smaller than Guyana? This was one of the key messages delivered by the chief policymaker for the oil sector this morning during the second day for the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo 2024 being held at the Marriott Hotel
During his presentation, the vice president said his administration is keen on having Guyana maintain its individuality. He said there are several geographical distinctions about his nation, of which all should be extremely proud. In this regard, he noted Guyana’s expansive forests, which store 19.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide annually. Dr. Jagdeo said this is possible due to the country’s low deforestation rates.
The vice president also noted that Guyana’s carbon credits are internationally certified, adding that a third was sold to Hess Corporation in December 2022 for a minimum of US$750 million. He said US$150M has already been received. He also shared that 15 percent of that sum has supported the implementation of 811 projects in 242 Amerindian villages.
Regarding the oil and gas industry, Dr. Jagdeo noted that Guyana will continue to enjoy its carbon negative status when its output reaches over 1.2 million barrels a day.
The vice president also noted that his government is pursuing an aggressive development plan even as it faces varying criticisms in the newspapers.
“Most of you would have done your research on Guyana and you see a number of issues featured daily, You see headlines saying that the oil and gas companies are robbing us, the State is not defending the people by signing good deals, the sector doesn’t bring benefits to Guyanese, we are causing global warming because of the produced water being dumped into the ocean…
“and so these are the ridiculous things we constantly have to respond to because in the minds of many people, they believe it,” said the Vice President.
The chief policy maker for the sector assured attendees that the country is not being robbed by oil companies. However, the policy of the government is to ensure that there is a working environment that allows investors to recoup the value of their investments.
He said the industry has already experienced an evolution of the regulatory framework which now has a robust Local Content Law, a strengthened Petroleum Activities Law and new model Production Sharing Agreements for deep water and shallow water concessions.
The vice president also shared with the audience that the government is planning accordingly to keep the Dutch disease at bay by spending strategically on capital programmes instead of splurging on recurrent expenditure. In so doing, he noted that inflation rates as well as debt servicing as a share of national revenues are both low.
In light of the foregoing approach the Vice President said, “Your investments in this country will be safe…We are not going to be Qatar or UAE and we don’t want to be…but overtime, we will have the best standard of living that is on par with anywhere else in the world.”