Introduction
Today’s column interrogates, rather summarily, the key crude oil metrics linked to Guyana, which within the space of four years, has been already hailed as the Americas’ fastest rising Petrostate. I begin this column with two preliminary observations. First, I concede upfront that, in spite of my desire expressed in the last column to locate Guyana’s petroleum resources and reserves discoveries in a precise setting, in actuality confusion and non-specificity prevail in all estimates I have come across thus far. I should add, including those from the Operator, ExxonMobil and partners, mainly on account of their datedness. Second, the high per person estimates of petroleum finds in Guyana can mislead due to Guyana’s small population
Because of the latter consideration I start this presentation with a quick look at the global level of petroleum holdings.