Latest update June 3rd, 2026 12:40 AM
Guyanese – the perennial sucker
Editorial…
(Kaieteur News) – This is the new Guyana. Restored to democracy, powered by oil, led by the PPP/C Government. All those are waved about as proof of Guyana moving and progressing. Yet, Guyanese are made into the same old suckers, taken advantage of by all and sundry. From their government to their partners, all use them to squeeze more blood from them. The latest group licking its lips in the expectation of getting its pound of flesh is Karpowership, the Turkish company with a powerboat in the Demerara River and another in the Berbice River. In total, they supply 96 megawatts of electricity to Guyanese households and businesses. Now Karpowership Company wants more money to keep the electricity flowing. It is going to be in the millions, and the government is trying desperately to buy time and negotiate the best rates possible. What other choice does it have? How much bargaining power does it have, when it has messed up? When it is widely known that Guyana has the billions, and the PPP/C Government has been splurging like Old Year’s Night revelers?
Executives of the Karpowership Company has the Guyana Government backed up against a wall. The government does not have much breathing room or negotiating room. In fact, it could not have had a weaker hand. The US$2B Wales Gas-to-Energy (GTE) has been delayed and delayed, and Guyanese energy consumers have been plagued by blackouts for long periods and often on an almost uninterrupted basis. The relief promised by the GTE has been long on leadership speeches and short on delivery, short on substance. Guyanese continue to live with the stress of the present blackouts, and fears over when the next ones are coming. The 2026 delivery, the latest in a series of dates, for the GTE appears to be exaggerated optimism at best, considering previous deadlines missed. At its worst, it might more likely be one more PPP/C Government con game being played on trapped energy consumers. Citizens who once had some belief in the government do not mislead themselves anymore about who they are dealing with, how they are the ones being tricked, and made to pay a heavy, unaffordable price.
Those in charge of Karpowership are neither blind or stupid. They are serious businesspeople, who recognize an opportunity when it is there for the grabbing. When the GTE comes on stream, and performs as represented, Karpowership Company could lose some of its utility to Guyana. A functioning GTE, though not the solution to all of Guyana’s energy woes, would reduce some of the bargaining power of the Turkish company. It is in the company’s interests, therefore, to seize the moment and strike while the window of opportunity is still open. To repeat the obvious, the longer that the GTE takes to become operational, the better it is for Karpowership. The GTE could go live by this yearend, and no matter the odds of that happening, Karpowership has to act now, and it is.
Now the government is scrambling, maneuvering for room. The Turks have the advantage, and they are not playing around, but making their position clear. They want to have a new contract at new rates signed immediately, or they are threatening immediate cessation of energy supplies from those two vessels operating in the Demerara and Berbice Rivers. This is basic business: have the other party on the defensive, then apply pressure with blunt force. It should also provide another eye-opening learning experience. When a government engages in schemes and tricks on its people, other people come and hold that government to ransom. What the PPP/C Government is now forced to deal with is the equivalent of a gun held to its head. It is pay up, as demanded, or pay the price. Unfortunately, incompetent or unscrupulous governments are not the ones paying intolerable prices. Those burdens are what the people have to carry, regardless how ill-equipped they are to deal with such developments.
The GTE is now hitting Guyanese in another way. From more money to the GTE contractor, Lindsayca-CH4, it is now more millions daily to Karpowership Company. It has the government right where it wants it. Without a leg to stand on and held hostage.
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