It would not have come as a surprise to those with a reasonable knowledge of the characteristics and behaviour of the oil industry that the commencement of offshore oil production will not coincide with the creation of a surfeit of jobs for Guyanese. By contrast, the less well-informed would have already fashioned visions of the creation of large numbers of lucrative jobs in one or another sub-sector of the oil industry. They would not have stopped to take account of the fact that apart from oil being a capital-intensive sector, those direct jobs that would be available in the industry require considerable skills that must be learnt, takes time to learn and also requires high levels of investment.
While the availability of those types of jobs, few as they may be, could open up limited opportunities for Guyanese already possessing the necessary skills and working in the oil industry possibly in another part of the world to serve at home, companies responsible for oil production in developing countries like Guyana with no track record in the sector would understandably see greater economic and logistical wisdom in simply securing the high-end skills from abroad.
That, of course, is only one issue arising out of the prospect of Guyana becoming an oil-producing nation that we need to ponder. Less than a week ago this newspaper had an extended conversation with a well-placed official in the local environment sector who articulated a persuasive concern over what he believes are the environmental concerns that derive from the commencement of the production of crude oil offshore Guyana. His was not so much a fear-inducing episode regarding the devastating consequences of an oil spill – even though he was mindful to make the point that a serious oil spill can do untold economic and ecological damage to the country – but a concern that Guyana enter into oil production with a much clearer national understanding of the implications of so doing so that what we envisage goes beyond the financial earnings that will derive therefrom but also the attendant environmental and other risks.
Unfortunately, a familiar characteristic of the behaviour of some oil-producing developing countries (though corruption in the oil sector is almost certainly not unique to the developing world) is the diversion of much of the wealth from the sector into private hands, in many instances, the hands of well-placed government officials who are ideally positioned to do deals. From all that we have learnt Nigeria and Angola are examples of oil-producing countries where the returns from the industry have been heavily channeled into the creation of a wealthy political class.
Truth be told there is no reason to believe that some of the returns from oil earnings here in Guyana will not be diverted into ‘greasing palms’ in the wheeling that so often surrounds the oil industry and the disclosure that Guyana intends to enact Sovereign Wealth Fund legislation designed to at least seek to ensure that oil revenues, among others, are properly managed is at least partially reassuring even though we must wait and see how the management of the sector works in practice and whether such management will trump greed and avarice.
Incidentally, news that the country may be seeking membership of what we are told is the highly credible Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, headquartered in Norway and designed as a sort of buffer against corruption in the natural resources sector is reassuring though even that, in itself, offers no guarantees.
There are some other issues relating to the expansion of the local oil and gas and minerals industries that warrant national scrutiny and discourse and those include educating investors on the laws of the country governing the protection of workers’ rights. The Stabroek Business learnt earlier this week from General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) Lincoln Lewis that the Congress intends to seek discourse with ExxonMobil and the various expatriate gold-mining companies operating in Guyana on the subjects of workers’ rights including their right to become members of trade unions of their choice with all that this implies in terms of bargaining rights. One of the points that he made had to do with what he said was the sobering experience which the country has had – from an industrial relations standpoint – from the majority Russian-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI) which he said was not only guilty of considerable worker abuse but also of showing little respect for the Government of Guyana. Lewis says that while the GTUC had no wish to preempt the behaviour of the relatively new arrivals in either the oil and gas or gold-mining industries he believed that it was best if the authorities here erred on the side of setting out its stall on issues like workers’ rights.
The last thing we need, as Lewis told this newspaper is to wake up one morning to find monsters in our midst and worse, to find that they might have become entrenched and irremovable.
