Guyanese Online

Rigs to Riches: A lesson for Guyana’s future?

What Guyana does with the revenues from oil (and gas) will be important to its short and medium-term social stability and its longer-term economic prospects.

By Sir Ronald Sanders

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Thursday September 22, 2011 – Rigs to riches is the story of Norway’s rise from one of Europe’s backwater countries in 1969 to its position as one of the richest nations in Europe today.  How it achieved that status in just over 40 years could be a lesson for Guyana which is now on the brink of major oil exploration, discovery and production.

The Canadian company, CGX Energy, has recently announced that it is seeking to raise US$80 million, most of which will be used to fund its drilling activities within Guyana’s territorial waters.

CGX’s confidence in the possibilities of the Guyana drilling arises from the announcement by oil companies Tullow Oil PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC that they have opened up a new hydrocarbon basin offshore French Guiana with the discovery of a good quality oil reservoir from their first wildcat well.

Angus McCoss, Tullow’s exploration director, said the discovery is a “major step” because the geological system offshore Latin America is bigger than that of offshore Ghana.  He added,”There are at least half a dozen more of these Zaedyus type traps adjacent.”    more