Introduction
Today’s column addresses the second topic I had identified for consideration in this ongoing evaluation of Guyana’s proposed public auctions of its crude oil blocks. That is, a comparison between the key fiscal metrics in the ruling Stabroek block Production Sharing Agreement, PSA, with the model template intended for the proposed oil blocks auctions. Such comparison is done in order to gauge the likely difference in the Average Effective Tax Rate, AETR, or Government Take or share of net cash flow from the project[s] in play. These fiscal metrics are, by themselves, incomplete measures of the economic value yielded by the crude oil operations