The word out there is that now that CGX has announced that the oil rig The Ocean Saratoga has been dispatched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Guyana/Suriname Basin to start drilling for oil, large numbers of ‘better off’ Guyanese are busy googling the various Japanese used car websites, sizing up those high-performance gas guzzlers that they have been denied for so long. It seems that they have latched on to the idea that pipelines will be run directly from the rig to filling stations across the country, Guyana will ‘sign up’ as a member of OPEC and petrol prices will go down to somewhere around two dollars a gallon.
Parliament, we are told expects a unanimous vote on the removal of laws that have placed limits on the engine capacity of cars that can be imported into Guyana so that, in addition to their duty-free cars, parliamentarians can enjoy the luxury of full tanks and long, relaxing drives when the National Assembly is not in session. When Parliament is in session their wives and children and drivers can have the cars to go shopping, head off to Splashmins or go fishing at Rockstone……….or perhaps they can simply go wherever the road takes them.
Of course, if those deep-pocketed billionaires and free-riding parliamentarians have gotten it into their heads that Guyana will be an oil-producing nation by Emancipation Day or some time in that vicinity they need to think again. The experts are saying that cheap petrol could be quite a few years off………perhaps even as many as ten years before the Republic can turn ‘a red cent’ from oil. It’ll be PETROCARIBE for some time yet.
Mind you, the Canadians have already warned us that oil can have a bittersweet taste. It seems as though poor countries like Guyana that find oil have a habit, thereafter, of ‘playing God,’ drawing down humongous loans from commercial lending agencies, turning their backs on things like agriculture and building skyscrapers………Skyscrapers are quite commonplace in oil-producing countries,
It would seem as though what the Canadians have also discovered is that oil has a way of fuelling corruption………as if oil or anything else is needed to fuel corruption in the Republic. That having been said the Canadians have warned us that we need to manage our oil money wisely. Quite how we’ll manage that, God only knows. Maybe we might wish to consider hiring a high priced metropolitan firm of accountants to control the oil money since whatever their fee it is bound to be considerably less than what is likely to disappear down a deeper and blacker hole than the one from whence the oil came. We should not forget that many of our politicians have long demonstrated an appetite for ‘the good life.’ Tailors, too, are bound to cash in once hands start dipping into the oil revenue till. Trousers will have to be restyled to accommodate DEEPER POCKETS.
The Canadians want us to pass tomes of legislation to deal with things like the environment, the transparency of contracts, management et al; this at a time when the government does not have a majority in the National Assembly. Good news for the opposition, you might think………except that the government might size up the situation and call a snap election.
As much as it is said that oil is a valuable natural resource the thing has a way of getting messy sometimes. God forbid that we experience any oil spills here. The things can devastate ecosystems, kill marine life and do untold damage to countries. Incidentally, Diamond Offshore, the owners of The Ocean Saratoga would know a thing or two about oil spills. The Ocean Saratoga was involved in an oil spill around the middle of 2010.
A few questions:
1. Will the Surinamese gunboats show up again despite the international to-ing and fro-ing by Sir Shridath and company?
2. Will Venezuela continue to treat us like a small pesky neighbour once they realize that we have struck ‘black gold’?
3. Finally, will we create an oil Ministry – and perhaps make a certain retired President our oil Tzar or will Robert’s Natural Resources Ministry have that portfolio too?
