“If you want to call that being on hold you can do so, but what I am saying it is basically an administrative process which is basically requiring the Department, which was only established on the 1st of August, to get a better sense … of the lay of the land, before they start to proceed to engage people and to make decisions,†the Minister of State told Reuters.
The Exxon consortium has so far made nine discoveries off the shore of Guyana, which could together yield some 750,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily by 2025. Now Tullow Oil is preparing to start drilling in its Orinduik license plot, which neighbors the Stabroek area where Exxon has made its discoveries.
Having a special ministry dedicated to energy issues seems like a good idea; Guyana is a tiny country with a population of 800,000 and no history of oil production. Its transformation into an oil producer will certainly change a lot of things. It’s anyone’s guess if Guyana would be able to avoid the oil curse that has wrecked the economies of so many countries, including, notably, its neighbor Venezuela.
