The Great Guyanese Heist: A Liquidation Sale of the Future

Jan 19, 2026 Letters

Dear Editor,

Guyana is witnessing a masterclass in economic extraction. While the skyline of Georgetown bristles with the skeletal frames of new hotels and the government boasts of “transformative” infrastructure, the geological and fiscal reality tells a predatory story. We are not just using our oil; we are hemorrhaging it to mask a failure of leadership.

The math of the Liza fields is a chilling indictment of state “oversight.” Originally sold to the nation as 20-year sustainable revenue streams, the Liza One and Liza Two fields are being cannibalised at record-breaking speeds.

By allowing extraction rates to surge beyond original design capacities, the government is facilitating a “dash for cash” that benefits the operators’ quarterly reports while shortening the runway for Guyana’s development. Projects meant to support the next generation are being exhausted in less than a decade. We are trading long-term energy security for a short-term cash spike that is largely being captured by the operator, not the owner.

The core of this “fiscal surrender” is the refusal to implement ring-fencing and the exploitation of the 75% cost-recovery cap. Here is how the mechanism of extraction works against the citizen:

* No Ring-Fencing: Under a standard fair deal, the profits from an active field like Liza One would stay with that field. In Guyana, Exxon is allowed to take the money earned from your oil today and use it to pay for exploration and equipment in other blocks tomorrow. You are effectively financing their future profits while your current revenue is suppressed.

* The 75% “Shaft”: Exxon deducts up to 75% of every barrel produced to pay for “expenses.” Because there is no ring-fencing, this “cost bank” never empties; it just gets refilled with the costs of new projects, keeping Guyana’s 50/50 profit share perpetually out of reach.

* Tax-Free Plunder: While the average Guyanese worker pays income tax, the government pays the companies’ taxes out of its own share of the oil, further diluting the actual take-home pay for the nation.

Rather than confronting the lopsided 2016 contract, the government has taken the path of least resistance: raiding the Natural Resource Fund (NRF).

Through the Fiscal Enactments (Amendment) Act of 2024, the legislative guardrails were systematically weakened. The “complex” formulas designed to ensure intergenerational savings were replaced with a “simplified” sliding scale. This wasn’t for transparency—it was for accessibility.

Under the new rules, the ceiling for withdrawals was aggressively raised. For the first US$5 billion in the fund, the government can now pull out nearly the entire amount to finance the national budget. This “raiding” of the fund serves two purposes: it creates a facade of “oil-funded development” to distract from the refusal to renegotiate the contract, and it masks the fact that the government is simultaneously exploding the national debt to fill the holes that the 75% cost-recovery leaves behind.

The fallout is an economy now on life support. The lack of fiscal prudence isn’t just a technicality; it’s a ticking time bomb.

* The Mirage of Infrastructure: We are told the money is going to bridges and roads. But look at the documentation: many of these “much touted” projects are funded by massive bilateral loans. We are borrowing against a future we are simultaneously draining.

* The Dutch Disease: As the oil sector sucks the labour and capital out of the room, agriculture and manufacturing are withering. When the oil runs dry in 10 years instead of 20, there will be no productive economy left to catch us.

* Generational Theft: This is strategic liquidation. We are selling our children’s inheritance at a discount to pay for the political optics of today.

This is not development. It is a fire sale where the auctioneer is also the buyer’s best friend.

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