Dear Editor,
It is reported that ExxonMobil has found large deposits of oil and gas in a recently drilled appraisal well offshore Guyana.
It is reported also, that the company intended to drill another well in upcoming months. The oil giant previously drilled another well last year that they believe could contain at least seven hundred million barrels of oil. Wow!
The drill site we learnt is located some 150 miles offshore from Guyana’s east coast.
For over 20 years now, two giant oil drilling companies British Petroleum and Repsol of Spain have been exploring the area without much success.
The Liza 1 well, we understand, holds probably the equivalent of more than seven hundred million barrels of oil.
On speculation, our land of many waters and six people may begin producing crude by the end of the decade, as anticipated by our national Government. The prospect would be worth about forty billion dollars at today’s international crude price.
Guyana gained attention in the world in May 2015 when ExxonMobil announced the discovery of more than 90 metres of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs about 120 miles off its coastline. That discovery could be significant for our country, which currently doesn’t produce any oil and could use the economic boost. The oil and gas exploration activity by Guyana has been a source of tension with neighbouring Venezuela. The announcement of the discovery set off a round of recriminations between us and Venezuela, our socialist western neighbour which has long made a claim on our Essequibo region.
Venezuela has claimed that the concession is located in disputed waters which they claimed are theirs. It is claimed allegedly that this massive offshore column may hold over ten million barrels or more. For Guyana, a country of less than a million people, the find changes everything. Within a decade, Guyana could be completely transformed by the find going from unpaved roads and sporadic power to being a noticeably developed nation.
If this find is true, Guyana is expected to be an economic giant in South America, provided its national administrators act uncorruptedly and they expend the financial rewards on the Guyanese people’s education and social services plus rebuilding and building the necessary national and social infrastructure its citizens deserve, and also stop the outward flow of its citizens from its shores.
Yours faithfully,
Rooplall Dudhnath
