Prepare yourself…oil is coming – Minister Jordan

DPI, Guyana, Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan has called on citizens to educate themselves and become more involved in the country’s upcoming venture into the oil and gas industry.

“You [citizens] know oil coming, it is closer than you think. There will be billboards informing you when that the oil money will be available… we will have all of these things to notify you. Prepare yourself to get a piece of this action, this is ours to hold and ours to keep but if you do not prepare ourselves to benefit from it, others will,” Minister Jordan said.

The Finance Minister was at the time addressing a gathering, at the official commissioning of the Anna Catherina Early Childhood Development Centre, on Saturday.

According to Minister Jordan, Guyanese citizens must organise in an effort to not be overshadowed by foreigners looking to invest in the local oil and gas sector.

“Look at all of the people that are coming to our country, look at the hotels that are completely filled… many of the flights are bringing persons who are seeing the future prospects. Our citizens must see this too, Minister Jordan declared.

He stressed that the move to improve oneself will help in the government’s agenda for the generation of job opportunities.

ExxonMobil began oil and gas exploration activities in Guyana in 2008, safely drilling its first exploration well Liza-1, in 2015. ExxonMobil most recent discovery, being the eighth well, is said to increase the estimate of the discovered recoverable resources from a previous estimate of 3.2Billion oil-equivalent barrels. This has led to advance evaluation to support a third phase of development and consideration of two additional phases.

The increase followed the completion of testing at the Liza-5 appraisal well, a discovery at Ranger, the eighth discovery, Longtail, into the Turbot area evaluation and completion of the Pacora discovery evaluation.

The eight discoveries are as follows Liza, Payara, Liza deep, Snoek, Turbot, Ranger and Pacora.  The Stabroek Block is 6.6Million acres (26,800 square kilometres) locating approximately 120 miles (193 kilometres) offshore Guyana. Oil production is expected to begin in early 2020.

By: Neola Damon
Images: Leroy Lyttle