The visit to Guyana of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is an indication of the growing importance of Guyana on the international stage. This importance is a by-product of Guyana’s burgeoning, petroleum-based, economy which will soon place Guyana as the largest petroleum producer per capita in the world. This, however, means little because with production at 1 or 2 million barrels a day, which is expected to be the maximum that Guyana will attain unless our reserves increase significantly by more discoveries, Guyana will not be in the big leagues. Guyana’s oil will have no influence on the world’s economy, as Saudi Arabia or Russia, which both produce in the vicinity of 9 million barrels a day. However, Guyana will become economically powerful enough to have an influential voice in the Caribbean and even in Latin America and, perhaps, further afield. It is in the recognition of that growing reality that brings Blinken to Guyana. The US would undoubtedly wish to influence the direction of that voice.
