Introduction
For readers’ benefit today’s column is devoted to providing careful reporting on the queries and policy prescriptions on offer in the first three chapters of the World Bank’s Staff Guyana SCD Report,2020. The remainder chapters [4-6] will be similarly presented following this. To avoid unintended mis-representation I shall stick to paraphrasing and quotes for controversial phrasing.
Chapter 1 Situating the Oil Sector
The first Chapter is largely introductory. Methodologically, it poses the main problematics or contradictions between challenges and opportunities facing Guyana at the time of world class oil and gas discoveries; and, the remaining Chapters exploring how these might be resolved. Recall also that this took place in 2020 when “official resources” holdings stood at 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent, boe.