Dear Editor,
Imagine a deal so lucrative it promises to slash Guyana’s fuel costs by 20-35%, build a massive storage hub, and turn us into a regional energy powerhouse—yet it’s hatched in the shadows, bypassing every safeguard meant to protect our people and purse. In February 2025, President Irfaan Ali stood at the Guyana Energy Conference and unveiled a handshake agreement with US firm Curlew Midstream: a US$300 million tank farm, 30,000 barrels per day of refined fuels piped in, and dreams of serving Brazil and the Caribbean. No press release mentioned a public tender. No Expression of Interest invited our certified local firms to the table. Just a bold announcement, as if the nation’s wallet were an open bar.
This isn’t how Guyana procures. Our Procurement Act of 2003 demands competitive bids for anything over G$20 million—open, transparent, value-driven—unless Cabinet carves out a rare exception like an emergency or unique expertise, with full justification on record. Here? Silence. No bidder list, no evaluation criteria, no EITI-aligned disclosures. Compare that to the gas-to-energy project or the cooking gas bottling plant, where pre-qualifications flew publicly and 10 firms vied openly. Why the velvet rope for Curlew? And when Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo later admitted “major differences” stalled the ink, did they re-tender? Nope—still no sign of sunlight.
Layer on our Local Content in Petroleum Activities Act of 2021, a hard-won shield prioritizing Guyanese for over 40 reserved categories: catering, construction, logistics, you name it—100% local where feasible, with registration and certification as gatekeepers. Yet Curlew, an Arkansas outsider, was fast-tracked to helm storage construction and fuel supply, no joint ventures mandated, no subcontracts spotlighted for our builders and suppliers. This isn’t maximum participation; it’s maximum exclusion. The Act’s phased targets, escalating with our oil boom capacity, scream for domestic muscle-building—especially now, with 2026 amendments doubling down on enforcement amid soaring revenues.
Sidestepping locals doesn’t just chafe; it starves our economy of the value retention we fought for.
Then the jarring twist: a Florida federal lawsuit filed at the end of February 2026 rips the veil. Curlew sues former Tennessee Congressman Mark Green, lobbyist-attorney Marc C. Hebert, and his firm Jones Walker LLP for allegedly swiping their confidential trade secrets—technical specs, commercial blueprints shared in “helpful” talks—to hijack the deal.
Green and crew, the complaint charges, pitched a rival fuels venture to Guyanese officials using pilfered intel. How did a US ex-politico and his cronies even get eyes on this without a formal process? Backchannels? Insider nods? In a tender-less vacuum, proprietary data flows unchecked, rivals poach, and Guyana’s leverage evaporates.
These anomalies aren’t footnotes; they’re flashing red flags. Sole-sourcing invites favoritism: politically wired foreigners vaulting certified locals, perfect for offshore kickbacks or hidden equity. Confidentiality without safeguards breeds exploitation—stolen secrets flipped into competing bids, perhaps greased by consultancy fees to unseen hands. Enforcement?
Toothless so far, despite GY$1-10 million fines, bid bans, and up to two years’ jail staring down violators. High-stakes energy plays, promising billions in savings, sail unchecked, eroding trust as oil wealth swells.
This isn’t procedural nitpicking amid our prosperity—it’s a sovereignty test. Demand the ledger: all Green/Hebert/Curlew contacts; Cabinet minutes greenlighting the bypass; audits proving local content wasn’t gutted. Re-tender publicly, prioritize our firms, seal the graft gaps. Guyana’s fuel future belongs to Guyanese first—not shadowy deals that hand rivals our blueprints and leave us footing the bill. Will we watch our laws wither, or wield them? The pump prices ticking higher awaiting your answer.
Regards,
Hemdutt Kumar
