Is there still oil in Guyana?

Sep 27, 2025 Editorial, News

Kaieteur News – Putting ear to the ground for the last few months, and something becomes apparent. It was the same when news headlines were viewed, when the political positions were made by the various groups, with one exception. Using from paper to people as guideposts, one has to wonder if Guyana has oil. For even when oil was spoken of, it was in a small mouthful here and there, and appeared to be the last thing that political parties and their spokespeople cared to speak about. There is so much oil in Guyana, and the groups that were wrestling for power, for the right to control it, wanted nothing to do with it.

From the government to the opposition parties, there was one common thread, which was to say next to nothing about oil, unless they were forced to say something about it. They all had party manifestoes that promised the world, but yet was so sparse on what was intended to be done about the national patrimony. The one exception in this regard was the AFC, which had a comprehensive and inspiring plan for the oil and gas sector. The manifestoes of the other parties with a focus on oil were nothing to talk about. It was more of what looked like fluff and what sounded so bland that we could not help but think that what the parties offered relative to oil was pro forma, an exercise merely intended to fill up space.

There is oil, this great natural resource bonanza, and the last thing that political parties competing for power had any interest in stating their positions on its management in a clear and robust manner was the same oil. The parties and their leaders all had stacks of rhetoric and spoke at the highest volumes of how much they were going to spend on this and that programme to make the lives of Guyanese better. But on the source of their spending, and how oil would contribute to that, there was comfort in silence. The hard fact is that Guyanese politicians know that if they speak too aggressively, or improperly, about oil, there is a strong chance that they will offend ExxonMobil, the American oil supergiant that virtually runs Guyana. Offend ExxonMobil and they know with absolute certainty that their political days would be numbered. So, they played it safe, said little to nothing, other than the AFC, which put before Guyanese an oil and gas plan that had more than a few elements of the persuasive about it.

The AFC itself could be looked at with a critical eye, that oil and gas plan that it crafted. It was clear from early in the elections campaigns that the AFC had nowhere to go, was out of the running. We have no issue with its plan but, as almost everyone in Guyana had concluded, the AFC didn’t matter in the political calculus, which means that its oil and gas plan, as solid as it was, had no meaning. One recommendation that we would make to the other political parties is that they study that AFC plan and learn from it, if they are serious about oil.

It was a concern long before the elections came into play. We at this paper know from experience that the major political parties, the PPPC Government and the APNU opposition, tiptoed around, and hedged their language, when the issue at hand was about oil and ExxonMobil. Week after week, and for years, their press conferences were full of details about what they were going to do to address various issues across Guyana. But when the subject was oil, both the PPPC and the APNU went into their shells. They were so fearful, and also so careful, that it was a rare development for one to criticize the other on what had to be done to get more from the nation’s oil wealth.

The elections are over, but the oil is still there, as part invitation and part challenge to the politicians of Guyana for them to prove themselves by getting more from it. No one has indicated that anything will be different, which is part of the tragedy of Guyana’s oil treasure.

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American oil supergiant, Crude oil, Editorial, ExxonMobil, Guyana Oil

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