VP blocks local refinery project

May 05, 2026 Letters

Dear Editor,

In a letter in the Kaieteur News, Jamil Changlee asks whether the question, “whether Guyana should have its own refinery should be expanded to a question focused on whether the Region should increase its refining capacity”?

He argues that it would be foolish for Guyana to build a refinery … the oil refinery in Trinidad has excess capacity and languishes due to lack of use resulting in financial losses”. Mr. Changlee has it wrong. The fact is the T&T refinery is in disrepair and needs a lot of input to get it back on stream.

Changlee states, there is “excess capacity in the Caribbean”. However, we need to look at the empirical data. The reality is CARICOM alone needs over 400BPD which means refining capacity of over 700BPD. The Caribbean has a need for over 1m BPD.

An examination of refining capacity shows the 600,000 BPD St. Croix refinery in US Virgin Island, the 335,000 BPD in Curacao and the Aruba 235,000 BPD have all been shut down. Jamaica with a capacity of about 55,000 has reduced production to about 25,000. Production and export of refined fuel in Venezuela have fallen tremendously.

So, any argument of over capacity has no basis in reality.

The President is now of the realisation that energy security is now a major problem. I guess this realisation was because of the war in the Middle East which resulted in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the bombing of energy facilities in the Gulf Countries. Also, for whatever reason a number of refineries are on fire making the situation more dire. I wrote a number of letters which were published in the KN on the dire need for a refinery to guarantee energy security for Guyana and CARICOM and indicated the probability of war in the Middle East.

My position is that The President should have realised this long before or his advisors should have advised, but, when the President employs suck ups instead of qualified and patriotic Guyanese who are critical thinkers and terminates those that are what do you expect.

On Multiple occasions I wrote that a Guyanese American who is a highly qualified engineer with tremendous experience in the oil industry developed a project for a refinery in Berbice. He obtained an MOU from the PPP government signed by PM Sam Hinds. He invested a lot of money and obtained a provisional environmental permit from the EPA and was awaiting the final one from EPA. The EPA wanted a no objection from the Office of the President, meaning Bharat even though the company already obtained a no objection from the GOINVEST.

He obtained financing to the tune of five billion USD, one billion to resuscitate Skeldon Factory to produce ethanol to supply the refinery and four billion for the refinery.

Guyana has so far been deprived of our own refinery because the VP has been blocking this project. History and the present situation would never absolve him. Had he not blocked the abovementioned project by now we would have been producing our own fuel. The Project was aiming at 240,000BPD. We would also be on our way to producing fertilizer and gas for cooking etc. and a lot of foreign exchange savings and earnings.

This transformative project would be your legacy Your Excellency. Ball is in your court Failure to act would mean history would not absolve you and you would be condemned by the future. Call the gentleman and get things going Mr. President or you also would be condemned by history.

Sincerely,

Rajendra Nauth Bisessar

BSc Sociology, LLB

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Letters, local refinery project, oil refinary, Rajendra Nauth Bisessar, St. Croix refinery

One thought on “VP blocks local refinery project”

Andrew Venton May 8, 2026 at 4:07 pm

I sincerely agree and indorse building a refinery for guys and future for our coming generations. Being
nationalistic, it’s our time now as.we gave the oil and just maybe our oil will be for the next 100 years hopefully if we find other well and it’s just possible. Anyway we shouldn’t into
to partnership with CARICOM we should have our very own it’s futuristic thinking if our Honourable PRESIDENT ALI thinks this way I am.in totally in agreement with his position

As we move forward I our OIL development as and international trends with the oil market it’s necessary to protect our future assets in oil and other petroleum products
Hopefully the government moves forward in this issue URGENTLY AS TIME WAITES ON NO ONE. And if we forecast for our future with the essquibio area who knows what it will bring in .the future.
As a GUYANESE citizen in and strong supporter of our oil industry Mr President Ali go for it, time is running out SO DO IT. NOT FOR YOUR PARTY OR OTHERS BUT FOR OUR BELOVED NATION. GUYANA. AMEN 🙏🙏🌊

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