If ExxonMobil Guyana President, Alistair Routledge, is true to his word from last November, he should be jetting off this month to Singapore. There, he’s going for the “christening ceremony” (that’s what the man said!!) of our FOURTH FPSO – the One Guyana – that should sail into position in a few months’ time in the Yellowtail development project within the Stabroek Block. That block, of course, is the Opposition’s gift to ExxonMobil that never stops giving.
Right now, we have three FPSOs – Liza Destiny, Liza Unity, and Prosperity – churning out at least 650,000 bpd. So, when One Guyana – with a rated capacity of 260,000bpd – joins them, you just know that’s gonna make our production get pretty close up to ONE MILLION BARRELS PER DAY!! Not bad for a country that, just the other day, was insulted by TT to not think of TT as an “ATM” machine!! Now, to those Wailing Jeremiahs, who’ve been warning us not to count our chickens before they’re hatched, because of “renewables”, they should know that the demand for energy to push manufacturing just can’t be satisfied without oil. Imagine, just last year, China’s electricity demand grew by about 1.4 times Germany’s!! And that’s with China downsizing their factories to deal with Trump’s promised increased tariffs!! So, with demand looking fairly solid, we gotta do our best to take a unified position on how we gonna spend the money coming our way.
And this brings us to the Budget that’s gonna be read in the National Assembly today. We already know how the Opposition think the money ought to be spent. They’ve adopted the old pork-knocker’s philosophy when coming out of the bush after striking it rich – blaze it all away on wine, women and song!! Now, while they haven’t phrased it exactly this way, their proposal to reduce taxes and launch a Universal Basic Income is tantamount to that. Let’s be honest – sadly, our spirit might be willing to scrimp and save, but we know the flesh is weak!!
And in case you, dear reader (cynically) wondered, it’s purely coincidental – if serendipitous for the PPP! – that the next General Elections gonna be held later this year, as the good FPSO “One Guyana” starts pumping oil! Your Eyewitness also suspects that there might be more than just a chicken in every (Guyanese) pot!!
…Gaza peace??
Your Eyewitness read about the announced “ceasefire” in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians with a whole lotta cynicism. Frankly, the Israelis have gotten away with so much – which no one in the world thought possible two years ago! – that their demands on the Palestinians would just be too much for the Palestinians to bear. Imagine, their Defence Minister can threaten to quit if Hamas is allowed to exist!! Can the Palestinians demand the same of the Israeli right-wing parties??
But the reason why the Israelis would demand more than their pound of flesh is the knowledge that they can lead the US by the nose. Outgoing US Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, jut revealed that the Biden Administration NEVER ordered Israel to end its rampage in Gaza; never criticised its expanding the war to Lebanon, nor its assault on Rafah; and never imposed an arms embargo!!
And Trump? Remember it was he who moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem – at the behest of his fanatically pro-Israel Evangelicals!!
…beer guzzling
A certain sign of our growing wealth is the Banks DIH announcement that their after-tax profit increased from $8.970 billion in 2023 to $10.563 billion in 2024.
And we’ll be getting a new beer canning plant this year!! Our own canned beer!!
