Govt has saved 60% of all oil revenues in NRF – VP Jagdeo

– US$3.2B saved as of September 2024

As of this year, as much as 60 per cent of all of Guyana’s revenue from the oil and gas sector has been saved in the Natural Resources Fund (NRF), with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo recently confirming that less than half of Guyana’s oil revenue so far has been spent.

During a recent press conference, Jagdeo addressed pieces of misinformation put out by Alliance For Change (AFC) leader Nigel Hughes, who was questioning the whereabouts of Guyana’s oil and gas earnings. Jagdeo took the AFC leader to task, however, particularly since the Government makes all inflows to the NRF public for persons to read for themselves.
“I don’t know if this guy thinks before he talks. He said the $5 billion in oil money is missing. I will draw (attention to) a post that Joel Bhagwandin made, to your attention. He said they’re divorced from reality because they don’t even look at the numbers. Nigel Hughes asked, where’s the $5.4 billion as if its missing,” Jagdeo said.
Jagdeo pointed out that as of September of this year, US$3.2 billion ($665 billion) remained in the NRF. This year, the NRF received inflows from six oil lifts from the Liza Unity, Destiny and Prosperity Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels… four of those lifts occurring in the third quarter.
“As of September 2024, the NRF balance was $3.2 billion. So, 60 per cent of the money we’ve earned to date from oil resources, remains untouched. It’s in the account. But he asked where is the money, the $5.4 billion,” Jagdeo recounted.
“We’ve only spent $2.2 billion so far or 40 per cent. And Nigel Hughes (acts as if) the money is missing. Does he even know that within the NRF, we have 60 per cent of all the money collected? And only 40 per cent has been spent so far. The 40 per cent that’s spent, was through an appropriation process in parliament. It’s not missing money.”
US$81 million ($16.9 billion in local currency), was received for a profit oil payment that was deposited on July 17, 2024. On July 26, another profit oil payment was deposited on July 26, 2024, this time for the sum of US$86.5 million ($18 billion). These profit oil payments were for lifts from the Liza Unity and Prosperity FPSOs, respectively.
Only on July 29, 2024, there was a royalty payment of US$101 million ($21 billion), that was related to the production of oil in the 2024 second quarter. The next profit oil payment occurred on August 29, 2024, in the sum of US$79.9 million ($16.6 billion). This payment was courtesy of oil production from the Prosperity FPSO.
In September 2024, there were three profit oil payments. The first one, US$79.4 million ($16.5 billion) occurred on September 4, 2024, and it was payment for a profit oil lift that occurred on August 6, 2024, from the Liza Destiny.
The remaining two payments, US$78.2 million and US$76.4 million, occurred on September 9 and 30 and were for lifts from the Liza Unity and Prosperity FPSOs that occurred on August 9 and August 30.
The funds in the NRF have their origins in the oil-rich Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, where US oil major ExxonMobil and its partners – Hess Corporation and CNOOC – are producing light sweet crude using the Liza Destiny, Liza Unity, and more recently, the Prosperity Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels.
In 2022, for the first time, Guyana used oil funds to finance a national budget. In fact, in 2022, the Government withdrew a total of $126 billion (US$607.6 million) in three tranches from the NRF which went towards financing Guyana’s national development plans.
In 2023, US$1.002 billion was withdrawn to finance national development priorities. The last of eight withdrawals for last year was made on December 27, 2023, from the NRF to the Consolidated Fund, to the tune of US$152.1 million (equivalent to $31.6 billion).
In October 2024, the Government made a withdrawal of $62.3 billion (US$300 million) from the NRF, marking the fourth tranche of the $329.8 billion in withdrawals approved by Parliament for 2024.