The oil and gas sector, understandably, is now, by far, the overwhelmingly dominant ‘item’ on Guyana’s developmental agenda. In terms of its relevance to the growth of the country’s economy, it now outstrips Guyana by a ‘country mile.’ This is not to say that the relevance of agriculture, historically regarded as the ‘backbone’ of the country’s economy, has been altogether left behind. These days, agriculture derives its relevance from our reputation as the ‘food basket’ of the region, and more importantly, from the eternal axiom that we must eat to live. That, almost certainly, will probably never change, never mind the fact that in terms of the country’s key economic anchors, oil leads the pack by a long way.
We continue, however – never mind the fact that from a media standpoint coverage of agriculture has now been relegated to a distant second – to try to keep our regional ‘food basket’ image alive. That is how we have long been seen in the Caribbean and it would certainly be to our advantage if we continue to be seen that way. That image, it has to be said, has, in the past year or two, been significantly burnished by reports of extant food security emergencies in parts of the Caribbean, a circumstance that immediately brought Guyana into the picture as a pivotal country in terms of any pushback of that food insecurity scare. Hence the central role that Guyana is now ‘tagged’ to play in initiatives designed to roll back the food insecurity scare, not least the launch of a Regional Food Security Terminal.
Here in Guyana, the media’s focus on the oil and gas industry has not, altogether shut out reportage on agriculture, never mind the fact that events and happenings in ‘oil and gas’ have assumed ‘pole position’ in the media. The Ministry of Agriculture has, in recent times sought to ‘preach’ the importance of agriculture and agro-processing. The Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) has, at the same time, been able to extract some measure of public attention from the creation of quite a few Agro Processing Facilities in various regions of the country even though, pretty soon, public and media attention is likely to focus on just how long it will take for these facilities to begin to ‘earn their corn.’
The legitimacy of this inquiry is embedded in the fact that there has been no shortage of ‘white elephants’ that we have sought to ‘pass off’ as development projects. Ominously, insofar as we are aware, some (or all) of those new agro processing facilities may not, at this time, be properly equipped to do what they were established to do. We will wait a while longer to see just when the Ministry of Agriculture/GMC will ‘get cracking’ with the bringing of these facilities ‘on line’ insofar as actual production is concerned. All of this notwithstanding, there can be no denying the fact that the ‘pecking order’ has changed. These days, no occurrence, neither local nor regional, can hold a candle to the media-driven lavishness of our now annual Oil and Gas Conferences. In terms of the extent of the international interest which Guyana attracts these days, our Oil and Gas fora are unmatched.
As it has done elsewhere in its global jaunt, ExxonMobil has come to be seen, here in Guyana, as, simultaneously, a saviour and villain. It symbolizes the hopes and aspirations of a people who regard the advent of oil and gas as the answer to a historical prayer, drowning out the feeble advocacy of a handful of seemingly hopelessly outnumbered environmentalists whose ‘warnings’ about the longer term environmental ‘payback,’ mostly appear to drift by like butter ’gainst the sun. The contemporary oil and gas scenario here in Guyana is hardly any different from those that have occurred in the sector, previously, ExxonMobil, we must bear in mind, has seen it all before in its encounters with those who have been there before us.
No one who knows even a little about this giant conglomerate’s (first christened Standard Oil almost two and a quarter centuries ago) history of global engagements would question the fact that it knows all the angles insofar as the global oil and gas sector is concerned and that as far as political savvy is concerned it far ‘outweighs the vast majority of sovereign states, (in cricketing terms ExxonMobil ‘bats deep’) globally, on account of what a Financial Times review of Steve Coll’s “Private Empire, ExxonMobil and American Power” describes as “its central role on the world stage.”
These days, there are any number of oil-rich countries whose contemporary economies have been ‘made’ by ExxonMobil. Some of the experiences have been spectacular rollercoaster rides that have left one of the world’s true oil juggernauts with a decidedly mixed legacy. ExxonMobil’s global ‘pull’ derives, unquestionably, from the transformational ‘lure’ that it offers and which oil-rich countries, whose access lies way beyond their domestic reach, will always be enticed into embracing.
