‘Having only just beginning to get its proverbial feet wet in the high-profile world of the global energy industry, Guyana, it seems, is already being positioned to play a strategic role in a sector that is never lacking in in-fighting and intrigue.
The country’s vast oil resources would appear to have been recruited into the ongoing tug-o-war between several of the giants in the sector, on the one hand, and others, only less powerful but always ‘digging deep’ to fend off the efforts of the mostly Middle-Eastern clutch of petro giants that include oil behemoths like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, ever seeking to hold a strategic advantage in the battle for control over oil supplies. It is in this cauldron of ‘high level’ petro politics that Guyana now appears to find itself.
Recently, Guyana was named by the International Energy Agency (IEA) as one of four countries, all non-members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), that will drive near-term global oil and liquids production to offset voluntary production cuts by OPEC, the United States Energy Agency (EIA) forecasted last week. The envisaged likely boost in supplies has come as the OPEC member countries and their allies, known as OPEC+ – Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan and Malaysia – agreed to extend voluntary output cuts at 2.2 million barrels of oil per day in a bid to secure higher prices. Simply put, it amounts to a high stakes game to impact global oil prices through supply manipulation. The U.S., Canada, Brazil and Guyana account for more than 80% of global supply growth in the EIA’s current forecast.
Petroleum liquids production by members of OPEC + is expected to fall by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2024, while non-members’ supply is expected to increase by1.4 million bpd, with the United States being the biggest producer in the group, according to the EIA.
