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Demand for land increasing – Exxon study
FILE – The logo for ExxonMobil appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, April 23, 2018. ExxonMobil says it is boosting its spending on greenhouse gas emission-reduction projects to $15 billion over the next six years and anticipates meeting its 2025 greenhouse gas emission-reduction plans by the end of this year. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
…GLSC now looks to repossess lands for more productive use
Kaieteur News – With the ever-expanding oil and gas industry in Guyana bringing with it increased foreign businesses and expatriate workers, the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission is now reporting that this had had a direct impact on the demand for land and now its unavailability.
This much is documented in the mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment since approved for ExxonMobil’s sixth development project in Stabroek Block. According to that document,: “with the development of the oil and gas industry in recent years, the GLSC has reported that the demand for land and therefore the value of land have increased particularly in proximity to Georgetown.”
To this end, it was recalled that back in 2019, GLSC reported that demand from local and international investors for private and public lands was increasing; and “at that time, GLSC noted that the government was considering expanding the state land area available for lease.”
The latest ExxonMobil Guyana EIA notes however that at present, “GLSC remains unable to accommodate the high demand due to the limited availability of land suitable for this purpose.”
According to ExxonMobil Guyana however, measures have been taken to address the influx of applications, including reducing the size of land allocations, monitoring and canceling non performing leases, and conducting layout surveys to divide land into smaller tracks.
The EIA also documents a heightened demand for state land along the Linden Highway in Region Four (4) “with a rise in requests for residential, agricultural, and industrial purposes (GLSC 2023, pers. comm.). To address the growing demand for land for agricultural, industrial, and other purposes.”
To this end, ExxonMobil documents in its EIA that “GLSC has indicated that underutilized state lands currently held by cooperative groups may be repossessed with the intent of supporting productive land use.”
According to the submitted EIA, “housing demands are also a priority, and the Government of Guyana has recently converted more than 800 acres of land formerly held by GuySuCo (Guyana Sugar Corporation), primarily in Regions Three (3) and Four (4), to the tenure of the Central Planning & Housing Authority for the purposes of housing development.
It would be poignant to note that in the EIA, Exxon Mobil Guyana laments that the country’s housing market data is lacking and is the focus of data improvement efforts through the Bureau of Statistics. According to ExxonMobil, with the growth of oil revenues has prompted significant government expenditures in infrastructure and housing, which are also intended to address effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and other macroeconomic stressors and that these investments may also influence demand for land.
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- Development, Environmental Impact Assessment, ExxonMobil, Government, Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission
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