MONTEGO BAY, Release -The Wall Street Journal says The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, is pursuing Guyana to join its cartel, as its newest member.
But the South American/CARICOM member state is being rather hesitant to join, claiming that it first needs to maximize production.
The Wall Street Journal quotes Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo as saying that “the country needs to maximize production -and profit- in the short term, given that oil demand is expected to decline in the coming decades.”
Right now the idea is to get as much of these resources out of the ground as quickly as possible, given that we are not sure of the window we have in the future,” Jagdeo said.
The Guyana Vice President who is in charge of the country’s oil production told the WSJ that joining OPECwould risk Guyana becoming beholden to efforts by Saudi Arabia and other members who have worked together on and off in recent years to curb global supplies and prop up prices.
The report noted that Guyana is planning to increase its oil production by one million barrels a day by 2028,”the same amount by which OPEC’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia has planned to increase its capacity in that period.”
It is claimed that if Guyana were to join OPEC, it would be the smallest country in the bloc by population and is expected to become the world’s largest oil producer by population.
The story noted that ExxonMobil and its partners have approved more than$40-billion in oil projects for Guyana with five projects expecting to pump more than one million combined barrels by the end of the decade.
Since 2015, there have been some 30 oil strikes with a combined output of 350 barrels a day by the end of last year.The stabroek Block off the Guyana coast is estimated to have some 11 billion barrels.
In all of this the Guyanese economy has grown tremendously with several infrastructure project investments in support of its port development and electricity power.
The IMF projects Guyana’s gross domestic product to rise by 37% this year but the Opposition says this is not being reflected at the bottom of the economic scale.
Guyana’s decision not to Join OPEC comes as the bloc is seeing its Influence over global supplies and prices ebb.Oil producing countries outside OPEC+ are set to expand faster in the coming five years than the alliance according to a report by the International Energy Agency released in mid June.
The WSJ report noted that Non-Opec producers are projected to boost output by 5.1 million barrels a day, led by the US, Brazil and Guyana the report said.
By contrast, the 23 members of OPEC+ will add new capacity of 800,000 barrels day as investments in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq are expected to be largely offset by declines in Russia and among allied African and Asian producers. (WiredJA)
