One of the things that came clearly across in this newspaper’s interview earlier this week with Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman was the need to separate the idealistic wishful thinking that used to (and still does) inform public discourse about such prospects that might arise as a result of an oil discovery from the very different reality that obtains now that we are actually on the verge of becoming an oil-producing nation.
Minister Trotman – who, himself, appears to have gotten his mind around many of the issues commendably quickly – spent a good hour or so – spelling out the extent of the transformation that will have to take place, ranging from the national attitudinal perspective on an ‘oil economy’ and its implications for Guyana to the actual changes that will need to be made in a number of critical areas in order to become a member of the club of oil-producing nations.
The first change in our mindset is going to have to be in relation to what one might call the common assumptions that have customarily been made about the implications of Guyana becoming an oil economy. For example, Exxon has already disabused us of the idea that oil jobs are likely to make a sizeable dent in the existing worryingly high unemployment rate.
Much of the rest of it has to do with the infrastructural requirements associated with being an oil economy, ranging from the considerable and costly human resource requirements which we will not be able to afford in a hurry to the legislative and regulatory instruments that apply to the sector globally and the environmental considerations that will attend with what one might term green economy ambitions.
It makes a considerable difference that much of the technical help Guyana will need as it takes its baby steps towards becoming an oil-producing nation will come from a sister Caribbean Community (Caricom) territory. The much-anticipated Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries which will set out the paradigms of the support which Guyana will receive could prove to be a historic document in the context of intra-Caricom relations.
It is worth repeating here what we mentioned in our lead story in this issue about the various other areas in which Guyana is readying itself for becoming an oil-producing nation including the creation of an autonomous Petroleum Directorate that will function in a roughly similar manner to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, the creation of key oil and gas-related legislation, the establishment of a Petroleum Institute and the recruitment of overseas experts to manage the sector locally.
One of the areas of interest during our discussion with the Minister was the revelation that the Government of Guyana is already in communication with qualified nationals residing abroad, who, the Minister says, have signalled their interest in working in the oil and gas sector here.
Other issues surfaced too; like the importance of Guyana not immersing itself in the kind of oil-related pollution that causes us to begin the undervalue those sectors – agriculture immediately comes to mind – that have served us well historically. How to keep our decision-makers grounded in this regard will be a key question and the Minister did make the point during our interview that there is something to be said for utilizing some of resources that will be derived from the oil and gas sector to strengthen the country’s agricultural sector in ways that are necessary.
There is, too, a foreign policy implication to Guyana becoming an oil economy. It begins with the illuminated profile that the country will realize in Caricom and in the hemisphere as a whole once the positive effects of becoming an oil economy become apparent. It has to be said, of course, that this is by no means a done deal. Regional and hemispheric influence will be derived from the political and economic dividends that our leaders are able to derive from an oil economy. There are simply too many examples of oil-producing nations that have gone off the rails socially, economically and politically for us to delude ourselves to the contrary. Oil wealth and attendant official corruption, for example, have created yawning chasms between the government and the governed and institutionalized poverty and misery in communities that ought to have been prosperous. There is no reason why that cannot happen here in Guyana if our leaders do not get it right.
All of what has been said here leads inescapably to the conclusion that there remains a gap between the realities associated with being an oil-producing nation and the level of national awareness of what we can expect in the future. The government cannot afford to press ahead with a start to oil exploitation whilst leaving this gap between myth and reality in public understanding.
