We know oil was struck in 2015; Trotman’s giveaway contract was signed in 2017; an account was opened at the NY Fed in Jan 2020, and by April of that year, the payment for the first lift of our (paltry) share of US$55 million was deposited. The NY Fed was chosen as a safe haven by the Bank of Guyana. Even though its interest rates are close to zilch, when it comes to big money, your Eyewitness figures prudence comes before risk!! Not that he’s got any personal experience with “big money”!!
One interesting fact of note is: since each of our “lifts” is 1 million barrels a pop, the money deposited pretty much signals the price of Brent Light Crude oil at that time. Right now, that price is now over US$100/barrel, so our balance should be rising quite steeply, thank you!! The Ukraine war has placed Russian Oil in jeopardy, and has really worked out for us!! So, if you’re really patriotic in a realpolitik kinda way, it’s in our interest for the war to continue a bit longer!! But seriously folks, even if the war’s called off tomorrow, oil prices are going to be bullish for a while, because the inherent contradictions of the world oil market have been exposed. It ain’t gonna be the same for quite a while – if ever. And we gotta take advantage of it! Unlike what those mad hatters are preaching: to leave the oil under the ocean!!
But back to the matter at hand – spending the oil money!! This, of course, is what’s gotten the Opposition’s bucktas and drawers all in a (tight) knot!! They figure that since the PPP has its (grubby?) hands on the purse strings through “effective control” of the fund, they’ll do what they want with it!! Meaning not only siphoning off “billions and billions” into their pockets – as their CY Thomas claims even during the hard guava non-oil days! – but developing the economy to such an extent that their supporters will be jumping ship en masse!!
It can’t be easy to see a steam roller coming your way and your feet are stuck in muck and you can’t get outta the way!! With President Irfaan Ali like the Scarlet Pimpernel – here, there, and everywhere – it’s no “days of wine and roses” for them! So, let’s see what’ll happen now that the first US$200 million has been transferred into the Consolidated to fund some of the developmental works in the “Historic and Transformational $552M Budget” passed back in February!!
Now it’s up to the Opposition to quit whining and use the Sectoral Committees to ensure the money’s spent for the developmental projects!!
…a new Technical Institute
Your Eyewitness was pleased as punch to read there’s gonna be a state-of-the art new Government Technical Institute (GTI) facility built. With all sorts of new, fancy, smart classrooms and equipment. This has been too long in coming. The moment we knew oil was struck, the PNC Government shoulda launched this project. It didn’t take any brains to figure out that we would need a new breed of “technical” folks to deal with the Gas and Oil industry that was going to be launched.
The PPP went ahead and opened up some other Technical Institutes in the other counties, but, sadly, these were even more backward that the one on Woolford Ave. they were all built for the 19th century! And now we hear of this old boy of the GTI coming back to haul it into the present. But your Eyewitness doesn’t think the initiative is going far enough. What’s the new curriculum for the 21st century??
We just can prepare for O&G. There’re whole new worlds to repair!!
…Guyanese fun
One PNC twat is making fun of the First Lady dancing like any other young Guyanese at a charitable fun function. So she should imitate the colonial masters and dance a Quadrille?
