True partnership

Apr 29, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

The production cost of oil is USD 35 per barrel (bbl) and it is being sold at $18 per bbl; a loss of $17 per bbl? By simple calculation Guyana collects every seventh million of production for which we will earn $18M; by the same token, a loss of $119M is accrued during the production of the seven million bbl. May I ask who is/are responsible for picking up this tab?
If it is Guyana, then we must sit with the Operator and work assiduously to lower the production costs; if it is our partners, then we must not only assist in every way possible to lower production costs, but we must also be willing to readjust our deal to make this venture viable in the short term and profitable in the long term for all concerned.
We must engage with the Oil companies as true developmental partners to determine the short, medium, and long term viability of the industry. Guyana must be willing to stand with our partners and help in whatever measure we can to ensure we get the most from our oil resource and if there is a period where it is costing us more to pull it out of the ground than we can make selling it, we have to agree to halt production if asked by the Operator. We have spoken of partnership with the Oil companies, and much like a marriage, one has to take the bad with the good to make it work. Guyana must use this period to readjust our thinking about oil as simply a ‘crude’ commodity to be lifted and sold. This is the time to think ‘value-added’; for example, petroleum-based synthetic fertilizers would bring extraordinary value to our agricultural sector. The Petroleum downstream must become part of the Guyanese dream.
Guyana urgently needs her legitimate government to take control to ensure this fledgling pillar of the economy is not destroyed as others were in the recent past. Every day lost comes with a cost attached. Sed fugit interea, fugit inreparabile tempus.

Respectfully,
Robin Singh

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