Shortage in the Oil Payment, January to June 2025: US$ 152 Million

Nov 23, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor,

The Bank of Guyana (BoG) half-year report (Jan to June 2025, page 81: https://tinyurl.com/bdd829ec) shows that Guyana received a total of US$1.08 Billion as payments for profit oil (US$ 907.94 Million) and Royalty (US$ 169.6 Million). In keeping with the 2016 PSA Contract, it is stipulated that Guyana must receive 2 percent of Total Revenue (TR) as royalty. Since the royalty payment is US$169,590,000, this implies that the total revenue is US$8.48 Billion (which is: US$169.6 Million divided by 0.02). But on page 17 of the BoG report, it lists total revenue of US$8.155 Billion. Consequently, this mismatch of US$325 Million is very concerning.

Additionally, since Guyana’s share of total revenue (TR) is assumed to be 14.5 percent (2% + 12.5 %), this implies that Guyana must receive US$1.23 Billion (which is US$8.48 Billion X 14.5%). Furthermore, since Guyana only received a total of US$1.077 Billion and total revenue was US$8.5 Billion, this implies that Guyana’s share of total revenue is only 12.71 percent, instead of 14.5 percent, assuming maximum 75 percent cost recovery as stipulated in the 2016 PSA (Table 1). Additionally, the bold figures in Table 1 below are taken from the BoG report and other figures are computed.

This shortfall of 1.79 percent, or US$152 Million, in Guyana’s total share may seem to be insignificant; but it is larger than total export value in 2024 of US$134 Million, aggregated for sugar = US$19 Million; bauxite = US$ 95 Million; and timber = US$ 20 Million (Bank of Guyana Annual Report page 21: https://bankofguyana.org.gy/bog/images/research/Reports/ANNREP2024.pdf).

We cannot solve the mystery of the data not reconciling because the Government of Guyana is not keeping to its promise to release the oil lift data (Kemol King, 2021: https://kaieteurnewsonline.com/2021/03/11/ppp-c-govt-releases-report-on-fifth-oil-lift-with-vastly-reduced-information/). This lack of timely information should force Guyanese policymakers to have an enhanced accounting system and timely monitoring of what is taking place in the oil business. In addition to the audited accounts for many previous years still being outstanding, this shortfall of US$192 Million is a clear indication of poor management of Guyana’s oil resources.

Sincerely,
Kenrick Hunte
Darsh Khusial
Janette Bulkan
Mike Persaud

On behalf of the Oil & Gas Governance Network Guyana (www.oggn.org/about )

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