Stabroek News – 29 January 2019
Commentary on the following presentation in London. UK
OIL DORADO? – Featuring Dr. Mark Bynoe- In Conversation with John Mair and Sally Gibson – London UK – 24 January 2019
Phil Miller is a British investigative journalist based in London. He works as a reporter for the Morning Star newspaper and writes freelance for other publications. You can follow his work at http://www.PhilMiller.info
However, Bynoe was less keen to answer questions about the prospect of a British military base in Guyana. The concept emerged over the New Year, when Britain’s hawkish defence minister Gavin Williamson told a right-wing newspaper that he wanted to open a new military base in the Caribbean after Brexit. He declined to name exactly which country would host it, but a military source told the paper that Guyana was one of the most likely locations. When I asked Bynoe about this on Thursday night, he appeared rattled and said he “could not answer” any queries about what the British military wanted to do in Guyana.
Bynoe is not the only one to dodge my questions about these putative barracks. Guyana’s foreign ministry has also not responded to numerous requests for comment. Britain’s ambassador in Georgetown, Greg Quinn, has tried to play down suggestions of a new military base there, telling local journalists: “There’s been no specific request to me to look into the possibility about a base here in Guyana.” So, perhaps the mysterious military base plans were just the rantings of a bullish British minister?
And yet the British government is paying close attention to the region right now. Over the last few days, it has amplified Trump’s regime change campaign in Venezuela. The UK Foreign Office has repeatedly denounced Nicholas Maduro’s legitimacy and arrogantly issued an eight-day ultimatum for fresh elections. Such colonial behaviour is reminiscent of Churchill’s treatment of Cheddi Jagan in 1953.
Quinn, Britain’s ambassador, has made it clear his job is focused on attracting British investment in Guyana’s oil industry. In November 2018, Quinn made a flying visit back to Britain and spent a week in the Scottish oil town of Aberdeen. He was joined there by Guyana’s ambassador to the UK, Frederick Hamley Case, who was leading a trade mission aimed at “building relationships to support the country’s fledgling oil and gas sector”. They toured Scottish energy firms and visited local universities.
During the trip, Quinn told Energy Voice, an industry media website: “A lot of the work that I do is to support the UK companies who are looking to come out” to Guyana. He said the number of British firms arriving in Guyana has “skyrocketed”, since Exxon made its major discovery in 2015. For Quinn, it is only natural that the Foreign Office should help with this process. He said “The bottom line is if there is a company here in Aberdeen that is looking for an opportunity to get into business in Guyana, we should be their first port of call.” There are even reports that Georgetown could twin with Aberdeen.
As early as July 2016, a year after oil was discovered, Britain’s Royal Navy gave four Guyanese personnel a one-week crash course in how to protect their Exclusive Economic Zone – the stretch of water 200 nautical miles from Guyana’s shoreline, which contains the oil fields. Indeed, Britain, like the US, appears keen to influence Guyana’s oil industry, perhaps fearful that Venezuela’s example of a state-controlled energy sector could jeopardise potential profits for Western firms.
Like many who attended, I was left wondering how much control over its oil discovery Guyana really has. When one Guyanese expat asked what Exxon would do to help educate young people, he was told “This is a new industry so we don’t want to start regulating it too early”. Indeed, petroleum legislation has been paused. The only success Bynoe and Wilks could point to was 50 Guyanese youngsters who Exxon sent to Houston for training on the new floating oil rigs. Wilks’ even admitted that the “oil industry does not employ a huge amount of people”. Each rig only needs between 100 and 140 crew. If the Oil Dorado event was intended to entice the diaspora to invest in Guyana’s oil industry, it appeared to leave many concerned about whether this the best way forward. Guyanese expats young and old did not seem impressed by Bynoe’s presentation, Wilks’ interruptions or the prospect that a British military base could be in the pipeline.
Comments
Wow, this is very interesting
Venezuela is going to be invaded, and I doubt Guyanese living abroad would want to do anything with PPP or PNC tribalism politics.
You have Indos here aspiring to become Saudi Arabians and PNC mouthpieces urging us to follow America right wing garbage.
I’m ashamed that my ancestors fought against the Dutch and British merchants so that our country became a vassal state for the ABC countries. My ancestors didn’t fight these slave owners to become stooges.
This also goes for you Indos who fought the British in Enmore. Let’s work together and stand against this European invasion.
You will see very costly and taller structures being built here in GT, but the benefits are for the Europeans. Many of us have diffuclty in obtaining a house lot, but foreign ABC corporations get miles of free land and also rob us of our resources.
Why are we allowing Europe and America to own us? If we were to migrate there, the local populations would treat us worse than how they treat their pet dogs.