Taking… the refining plunge

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there’s the famous scene where the hero agonises over “to be or not to be”. It epitomises the tendency of some to dither on and on when it comes to making consequential decisions. His soliloquy questions whether life’s miseries are worth enduring or if suicide’s better. In his case, he doesn’t kill himself because his conscience tells him God’s against it, and yet he can’t kill his uncle Claudius – who murdered his father – because of his fear of damnation!! For your Eyewitness, the answer to Hamlet’s question comes from the ending of the play – he’s killed by a sword poisoned by Claudius!! So, the answer, Dear Reader, is you gotta do what you gotta do – or, as the Yanks put it so much more philosophically and pithily, “Shit or get off the pot!!”
So, what has caused all this carrying-on by your Eyewitness?? The enormous rise in the price of oil on the world market – and more pointedly, the inevitable coming rise of gasoline at the gas pumps – that’s what!! Which has him wondering how much longer he’ll be able to nonchalantly say to the attendant, “Fill ‘er up!!” when he pulls up!! The pertinent question he feels ought to be answered is “Why don’t we have an oil refinery – or at least one around the corner – since we’ve been pumping our light, sweet crude for over six years?”!! And we’re about to hit one million barrels per day – of which our share’s gonna be 145,000 barrels per day and climbing!!
Now, your Eyewitness has been hearing talk about a refinery from the moment Exxon announced, “There’s oil under them thar Atlantic waves!!” After all, Exxon ships their portion to their refineries where they are refined and sold at an enormous markup – while we sell ours to middlemen at the daily Brent WHOLESALE price!! The irony is, hadn’t we been agonising for decades about us not benefiting from the advantages of all the products we ship raw and unrefined – like sugar, bauxite, gold, logs, etc? And counting all the money others were making while we settled for peanuts!!
So, what’s going on in the oil refining front?? Last month at the Energy Conference, Pressie announced we’d received a proposal from a US-based company – Curlew Midstream – for a 30,000-barrel oil refinery. He identified the potential US$300 million investment as “transformative” and one that could include markets in CARICOM and transcend economics and financial returns. Now this is exactly what we’d heard from Guyana’s Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, back in 2024 after the country received several proposals for the design and construction of an oil refinery at Crab Island – following the request for proposals in 2022!!
Pressie has got to crack the whip!!

…St Paddy seriously
Yesterday, New York City celebrated St Patrick’s Day – and as all our countrymen in Region 11 can tell you, lots of Irish eyes were smiling!! St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland – driving out the snakes from that island!! And the Irish have been honouring him in NY for 265 years, with the first parade dating back to 1762 – 14 years before the US Declaration of Independence! If nothing else, it tells you how long the Irish were in NYC – and how critical they’ve been to its vibrancy!
Your Eyewitness – being Guyanese – of course has an affinity for the Irish since he shares their love for beer and spiritous drinks – served green on this day!! There’s also the common heritage of being oppressed by the English!! There were at least 150,000 persons on Fifth Avenue marching uptown past St Patrick’s Cathedral on 59th.
Over two million persons looked on – most quaffing the brew of the Gods!! Can’t Mash imitate the St Patrick’s Day parade??

…the war’s measure
Joseph Kent, the US National Counterterrorism Center director, said Iran posed no imminent threat and the war was started “due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby”.
Resigning, he said, “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war.”