These stories can be republished and rebroadcast with credit to CIJN.

Can Guyana Avoid the Oil Curse?

One of the FPSOs operating offshore Guyana, the Liza Destiny.

(Photo Credit: News Room Guyana/April 9, 2021)

By Isanella Patoir

With enormous oil reserves, Guyana stands on the threshold of transformation. Its economy grew more than 60 per cent in 2022 largely because of an influx of oil revenues. But the nation’s rich resources come with promised opportunities and serious risks. 

In 2023, the challenge is to ensure those financial resources are put to work improving education and healthcare for Guyana’s people, protecting its environment and diversifying the nation’s overall economy. 

CIJN spoke with some of Guyana’s civic leaders who warn it can only be done if the government opens its books to the public and promotes a national dialogue about how this newfound wealth can be put to work. 

“The oil curse is in many ways a consequence of oil in the absence of strong regulatory controls, accountability, transparency, disclosure and reporting,” Chartered accountant and attorney-at-law, Christopher Ram said during an interview. Ram has warned about corruption for decades. He continues to advocate for robust oversight mechanisms to manage Guyana’s oil wealth. 

Guyana’s population hovers around 800,000 in 2023. That magnifies the effect the country’s oil riches will have on every citizen. It’s simple mathematics. 

Lessons From a Neighbor

For a full-blown picture of what the oil curse looks like, Guyana need only to gaze across the border at the economic and social predicament of Venezuela. The nation that once laid claim to being the richest in all of South America is on its knees. Millions of its citizens have fled the country looking for food, healthcare and employment. Approximately 30,000 have come to Guyana.

“If you look at the history of Venezuela,” Frederick Collins offered, “the odds are not in our favour.” Collins is Director of the Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc. (TIGI). 

Economist and lecturer at the University of Guyana, Sydney Armstrong is more optimistic. He told CIJN the challenge is in better utilizing Guyana’s oil wealth “to bring about wider developmental opportunities, especially for the vulnerable people, especially for the poor. I think we are…putting in all efforts to ensure that we don’t fall into the natural resource curse.”

An Economy in Overdrive

The International Monetary Fund declared Guyana one of the fastest growing economies in the world. In a September report, the IMF projected Guyana would grow 60% in 2022.

During his presentation of the National Budget for 2023, Minister with responsibility for Finance Dr. Ashni Singh reckoned the economy actually grew by 62.3 per cent in 2022. 



He announced a budget amounting to $3.7 billion US dollars ($781.9 Billion Guyana dollars).

Guyana’s earnings from oil and gas are deposited in the country’s National Resource Fund (NRF) which recorded a balance of more than $1.4 Billion USD in March 2023. The government reports thirty per cent (30%) of the 2023 budget will be drawn from the NRF.

At Guyana’s annual Energy Conference, sponsored by the oil industry, Liam Mallon, President of ExxonMobil Upstream Oil and Gas Company was exuberant.

“Think about what’s going on today offshore. We have two state of the art floating production and storage vessels, the Destiny and the Unity producing 380,000 barrels a day with exceptional, exceptional safety and reliability. By the way, that’s 40,000 barrels a day above the design capacity,” Mallon said in his address at the Energy Conference last month.

Read the full story HERE:

https://www.cijn.org/can-guyana-avoid-the-oil-curse/

Mental Break

The front and back cover of the National Library Service’s primary and secondary school poetry compilation. (Book: “How COVID-19 Impacted Me”, compiled and published by the National Library Service – August 2022)

By Esther Jones

Although the data is still being gathered, lawmakers, experts, teachers, and parents give anecdotal evidence that the COVID-19 lockdowns created mental stress for young people, especially young men. This series explores this topic through the eyes, ears and hearts of all those who have a hand in the development of young men in Barbados. Some persons interviewed preferred anonymity. They are given a pseudonym to protect their identity represented in quotations.

Do you remember when you were a young person? What were your dreams? How did you view yourself?  

Try to imagine yourself going through all the hormonal changes at a time when everyone is experiencing forced isolation caused by pandemic lockdowns and disruptions to work, school and friendships.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus came onto the world stage in December 2019, creating a paradigm shift and turning their worlds upside down.

Countries rushed to limit its spread by issuing lockdowns. In Barbados, these measures started on March 26, 2020.

During the lockdowns, international funding was necessary to stabilise the economy. There was high unemployment in the tourism industry and most importantly, there was fear of contracting a deadly disease. To date, COVID-19 took over 575 lives.

For anyone, this situation can test your mental fortitude. For young people, it strikes hard at their mental health at a vulnerable time. 

The Barbados National Library Service captured these feelings in a collection of poems by primary and secondary students called “How COVID-19 Impacted Me”. In the foreword, Senior Librarian Loleta Parris describes the anthology as children “penning their thoughts, feelings and experiences during [the] health crisis.”

Now that lockdowns are over and children are back at school, researchers are beginning to accumulate data on the effects of COVID-19 on young people. However, anecdotally, young men have a unique way of handling tension.

Tragically, this point was reinforced to a single parent and her son, who found out first-hand the pressure of the pandemic, leaving the son with one friend beaten, and his best friend fatally stabbed. His mother relates a parent’s worst nightmare.

“Sometime during the night, I got the call that [the best friend] was killed. I immediately contacted my son and couldn’t hear him at first. When I got through to him, he was screaming and having a tantrum over the situation, as is pretty much expected.”

Miguel Estwick from the Luther Thorne Memorial Primary School shares his feelings about COVID-19 in “Covid You Don’t Belong”.

Read the full story HERE:

https://www.cijn.org/mental-break/

These stories can be republished and rebroadcast with credit to CIJN.