Jul 17, 2022 – Kaieteur News – A recent report by the World Bank has criticised the Guyana Government’s offshore oil production arrangement with Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL)—ExxonMobil Guyana—based on safety, environmental concerns and inadequate payment and has since downgraded its rating of the country’s oversight of the project.
The report dated March 2022, documents the World Bank issuing an interim report that found the country’s rating had slipped from “Moderately Satisfactory” to “Moderately Unsatisfactory.”
According to the World Bank, while grant activities have been designed to help Guyana boost staff, experts, training and analysis at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ministry of Finance, this came to a halt at the end of 2021. This is despite the fact that grants made to the country were expected to support work through 2024. Meanwhile, flaring pollution and other risks continue. Continue reading
Venezuela: Illicit Trade Represents 21% of Venezuela’s GDP: Is This Our Post-Oil Future?
Venezuela – Click to enlarge
Tony Frangie Mawad | Caracas Chronicles
After calculating the current annual worth of drug, gold and gasoline trafficking and port smuggling in Venezuela, a study by the local chapter of the anti-corruption nonprofit Transparency International — with estimates from Ecoanalítica, a Venezuelan economic consulting firm — concluded that these illegal economies made up 21.74% of Venezuela’s GDP last year.
“This means they are more powerful than any other economic sector right now, including oil,” says Mercedes De Freitas, Transparencia Venezuela’s executive director. “And we are talking only about the size of four of these economies, the most important ones. THERE ARE OTHER ILLICIT TRADES: Certain types of food smuggling, diesel smuggling, cooking gas trafficking, human trafficking or timber trafficking, which could be important in some regions.” Continue reading →
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