Even as American oil-giant ExxonMobil continues its oil exploration activities here, a prominent Trinidad and Tobago business executive has recommended that Guyana invest some of its expected oil revenues in projects aimed at ensuring sustainable economic development.
“What can happen when you come into the certain kinds of revenue…significant oil or gas production comes into your country, is it can be overwhelming for any government…and what can happen is the government can grow in its expenditure. So it is important to create a balance between the wealth that has been created and sort of doing things for the population instead of just having government jobs,” President and Chief Executive Officer of the Trinidad-based Massy Group of Companies, Gervase Warner told Stabroek News two Thursdays ago.
Citing the experience of that oil-rich Caribbean nation, Warner strongly suggested that the emphasis should not be on massive government employment and services.
His comments came more than a month after ExxonMobil’s affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited began drilling the Liza-2 well on the Stabroek Block approximately 120 miles offshore Guyana. The company recently told Stabroek News that this second well is part of a wider offshore exploration programme that the company has embarked on since the discovery of a significant oil deposit in May 2015 at the first Liza well.
“This is ExxonMobil’s second well offshore Guyana which will help to further understand the Liza discovery made on the Stabroek block in May 2015. We have completed acquisition of our largest-ever proprietary 3-D seismic survey across the area, and we have initiated a multi-well exploration and appraisal drilling campaign with the spud of the Liza-2 well. The data is being evaluated to assess development,” the company said in a statement to Stabroek News.
It noted that ExxonMobil recently acquired an operating interest in the Canje block, adjacent to its existing Stabroek block, bringing its total acreage to 8.1 million acres. “We are progressing plans for seismic work on this block,” the statement said.
The oil-focused newspaper Upstream had reported via its podcast ‘The Bit’ that ExxonMobil is likely to drill between four to six wells split between an appraisal of Liza as well as wildcats.
Warner told Stabroek News that as Guyana positions itself for the revenue garnered from oil, beginning now, government should craft economic investment plans to safeguard itself for times when revenue slows.
“Many countries like we (Trinidad and Tobago) did, fall into the trap, and grew recurrent expenditure significantly. But really they should use those inflows for capital investment to create more avenues and highways, not literally but figuratively, those highways for growth in the future,” he posited.
“So infrastructural development such as the road between Lethem and Georgetown, port infrastructure, things like you know maybe going into refining. We need to use capital investment to drive further private sector led investment so your country is set on a growth path as opposed to creating a lot of jobs in government and creating a lot of services that may be good but overall, I mean just being watchful and careful and not to overdo it on that side. They need to really pay attention to facilitating growth and saving for the rainy day,” he emphasised.
