Last week’s confirmation that ExxonMobil’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods will travel to Guyana to attend next month’s International Energy Conference and EXPO Guyana 2022 places the country in the international oil and gas spotlight in a manner that comes close to equalling the international response to the May 2015 announcement by the global energy powerhouse that it had accessed several billions of barrels of recoverable oil in the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana.
The extent of the impact of ExxonMobil on the global oil and gas industry makes its CEO one of the most genuine high-profile functionaries in international business while the company itself has become known, globally, as much for its feats in the realm of oil recovery as for the controversies to which it has been linked, not least the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska.