Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has clarified that while no direct agreement for crude oil sales to India is currently under discussion, Guyana remains open to exploring such arrangements in the future if they are mutually beneficial.
“So [we] have not discussed any element of direct transaction for the sale of our crude to India…” Jagdeo stated during a press conference on Thursday. He explained that Guyana’s crude for the next year is already contracted to be marketed by companies selected through a recent tender process.
The Vice President noted that India had previously raised concerns about the need for larger shipments to make transportation economical. However, he said there was no specific discussion on this issue during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Guyana.
“There will be a time maybe if there is an oversupply of the market, we may have to go to long term contracts but the time is not now ,” he added. Jagdeo emphasised that the current focus remains on strengthening collaboration in areas like clean energy, technology, and investment. “The communiqué is very clear that we want to collaborate in several areas. India has enormous expertise in many areas but also clean energy. India is leading on solar in the world, one of the leading countries on solar power,” Jagdeo explained.
He noted that India is doing studies for Guyana in relation to possibly using gas in a fertilizer plant that will be constructed. “So in the whole hydrocarbon sector there are lots of areas where we can utilize Indian skills, Indian technology and also Indian investments,” the Vice President said.
Moreover, the Vice President outlined that in the future, “If it makes sense to both parties, it has to make sense to them and it also have to make sense to us financial sense…I think we should work towards something like that, we don’t have a problem with that but there is nothing that we have worked on that would result in any sale of crude in the next year or so because we have already have people to market our crude.”
