Latest update April 16th, 2026 12:40 AM
Oil dollars
Kaieteur News – The government and opposition are at loggerheads over the pros and cons of oil money spending. They can fight over who has it right on the best way to manage the trusteeship that Guyanese have placed in the hands of their elected representatives. Neither has risen to the occasion, left an impressive mark, in how they have dealt with the nation’s oil patrimony, and now how to care and get the best out of every oil dollar. The opposition says that Vice President Jagdeo hasn’t done well with oil money, that the government has delivered poorly with Guyana’s share of the profits. And, that even at the current low collection levels, national development can still be funded from it. For his part, Jagdeo has chastised the opposition by noting that oil prices can fall, so what it is talking about is not sustainable.
We at this paper leave Jagdeo and opposition spokesman, Ganesh Mahipaul, to bicker and bring down each other. What is surprising is how much of a political animal Jagdeo can be, when it suits his purposes. Today, he is concerned that oil prices may fall in the future. Where was he before, and why is it only now that sanity has returned to him, with the specter of oil prices falling and having some serious meaning? Falling oil prices are not a new phenomenon, or a development that happens once every blue moon. Falling oil prices are an essential aspect of the oil business, and one that is feared by oil-producing countries that get too dependent on this one commodity for their economic strength, their survival. This has been the up and down history of oil in its over-a-century long existence, which Jagdeo knows. Countries where oil featured as the centerpiece of their economies have fallen on bitter times, from time to time, due to the volatile nature of this liquid gold. There is no doubt that Jagdeo is familiar with those national records, too.
But none of that mattered to Guyana’s oil czar, who gave himself lots of excitement in how he made use of the nation’s oil money. It may appear massive to some Guyanese, but what should have been overseen with the greatest prudence, Guyana’s number one oilman made into the equivalent of a combination petty cashbox and ATM. Money wanted for some scheme and the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) and its billions were too inviting to be resisted. The PPPC Government withdrew and withdrew from the NRF, as though it would always be replenished. It didn’t matter then to the government or cabinet or Jagdeo himself that oil prices can fall. But now he is singing that tune in response to the Opposition’s Mahipaul. Today, Jagdeo is the essence of caution, while before he was the best example of a cavalier attitude and approach to the NRF and the probability of falling oil prices.
Because he knew before, and is now so concerned, about falling oil prices, he should have been the leader in two areas of crucial importance to Guyanese. Withdrawing less from the NRF was the first, because oil prices can decline due to some overnight development. The second was borrowing less from everywhere to fund pet projects and mystery projects, for which full accounting is the business of another day. Withdrawing oil money, raising the debt ceiling, and sucking up loans like a vacuum have all been characteristics of PPPC governance and Jagdeo’s oil management. But there he was on Thursday last, speaking bravely about what he used to wave at (falling oil prices) in his objections to what the opposition laid out as part of how it plans to spend Guyanese oil money.
Relative to falling oil prices, now a headache for Jagdeo, more oil is about to come onstream, with OPEC increasing supply volumes. More oil supplies in oil markets usually mean downward pressure on oil prices. Lower oil prices signal lower oil profits for Guyana, unless daily production is pushed still higher to compensate for NRF deposit shortfalls. When everyone is selling more oil simultaneously, oil prices become like trying to catching a falling knife. Jagdeo knew, but didn’t care, so Guyanese get ready to pay.
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