Guyana has opportunities for “all of Caricom” – Ali

…says T&T must foster mutualist partnership, not only in petroleum

With Dr Irfaan Ali set to become Guyana’s ninth Executive President, he has assured that under a People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration, there will be many opportunities for investments, including for Caribbean Community (Caricom) Member States.

During an interview with Trinidad and Tobago’s CNC3, Dr Ali spoke about his plans for Guyana when he assumes executive office and particularly responded to questions about foreign investors wanting to capitalise on the country’s lucrative oil industry.
While opportunities will be made available through better relationships with foreign Private Sectors, he noted that Guyana could not continue to serve as the Region’s breadbasket without any net benefit in return. These clarifications came after claims that Trinidadian stakeholders are coming to capitalise on Guyana’s newfound oil wealth.
As such, the President-elect highlighted, “We have to be careful how we manage relationships. The future has a lot of opportunities in Guyana not only for Guyana and Guyanese. These opportunities will be there for all of Caricom, including Trinidad and Tobago. What we want to see is a better relationship in terms of how the Private Sector in Trinidad and the Private Sector in Guyana collaborate.”
He went on to say that while Trinidadian firms are coming to offer technical support in oil – an area in which they are experienced – the partnerships must not be restricted to only petroleum.
This was brought up, since the country has faced many difficulties in shipping its produce or services from other sectors to the twin-island republic. Dr Ali said Trinidadians must come with the intention of establishing local capacity to handle the oil resource and also be open to partnerships in other sectors.
“While Trinidad is ahead on oil and gas and have the capacity and capability, we have to turn to you in the short term of course…What I think is that we need to establish a model relationship, where Trinidad work with local sector to develop that capacity. But we have to realise there is also a historical context to things. You have many Guyanese, over the years, [who] would have complained about how difficult it is and still is to get agricultural produce from Guyana into Trinidad. These are things we have to fix,” he voiced.
With the closure of its oil refinery Petrotrin, all eyes in Trinidad and Tobago were on Guyana for assistance, as thousands are now said to be on the breadline.
In 2018, former Prime Minister and current Opposition Leader of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar had stated that her country should attempt to partner with Guyana as oil production was looming.
Persad-Bissessar had said that even if Guyana moves to build its own refinery in the future, the Petrotrin facility could still be used in the initial years of oil production.
Since oil production started in the Liza field in the Stabroek Block in December of 2019, Guyana has produced over eight million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), with plans to ramp up production this month. This comes on the heels of Guyana’s first lift of its one-million-barrel share of the crude oil in February of this year.