Caribbean Corner

A mere five years after the first barrel of light crude was lifted from the seabed, Guyana has now been ranked as the third largest per capita oil producer globally and is on course to double its current daily average of about 650,000 barrels in about five years, officials said this week. Celebrating five years since actual production started in December 2019, American oil giant ExxonMobil said the country’s sweet, light crude oil being produced from three oilfields near the Surinamese border, its current fiscal and other arrangements and relatively cheap operating costs have made Guyana the ideal production destination. It will, therefore, remain in the country for the long haul. Commercial quantities of oil and gas were first discovered back in 2015, allowing the Caribbean Community’s largest and most resource-rich member nation to begin switching from economic dependence on raw gold, bauxite, cane sugar and timber production among other products to oil and gas today, a point...