Guyana is off to a “fantastic start” as an emerging oil producer with the establishment of a Natural Resource Fund (NRF). But even with that initiative in place, its biggest challenge will be putting together a solid plan for the use of the oil revenue to come and monitoring the execution of that plan with its limited human resources, says Luiz Hayum, an industry analyst attached to Wood Mackenzie.
During a podcast discussion on upstream projects and the key implications for Guyana and Mozambique, Hayum articulated that Guyana is off to a positive start and is demonstrating the desire to protect its resources. Be that as it may, the analyst said that the nation must keep certain goals in mind as it heads to first oil.
The analyst said, “We expect that the oil revenues will triple the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But the main goals (that Guyana should keep in mind) is to properly anticipate the oil revenue and bear in mind several factors such as the time limit to develop these resources, the value of the resources if they are still underground 10 or 15 years from now, and using the oil revenues received to diversify the economy and to provide the country with cheap energy.”
The Wood Mac official also said that local content efforts should be kept in focus too. In this regard, he stated that the companies in the sector are engaging the local workforce and are working along with the tertiary and technical institutes to provide training. He further reminded that ExxonMobil has actually established a Centre for Local Business Development to aid this cause.
While these efforts are commendable, he sought to highlight that Guyana is working on a local content policy to provide more guidance on what the authorities want for local participation. He said that this is without question, a crucial step that the country should stay focused on.
