Voters in Guyana, one of the world’s fastest growing economies thanks to its oil riches, are heading to the polls on September 1 to elect new parliament and president, with current President Irfaan Ali seeking a second and final term in office.
Ali and his People’s Progressive Party (PPP) won the previous elections in 2020 and managed to hold a 33 seat-majority in a 65-seat Parliament.
Opinion polls point that PPP will win the most seats again, but it is not a given that it could scrape through a majority again. The ruling party could be forced to seek a coalition to pass its legislative agenda.
Opposition parties are unhappy with the government’s spending of Guyana’s oil income, claiming not all Guyanese are seeing the benefits of spending programs, while the quality of life has not improved for all residents.
Three of Guyana’s opposition parties pledge to seek a larger share for Guyana from its contract with ExxonMobil, the U.S. supermajor leading the oil production projects in the country.
Exxon has said it would not re-open negotiations on the contract, which PPP and Ali want to keep as-is.
Oil income from offshore projects in the Stabroek block has propelled Guyana’s economy soaring by double digits in recent years.
Earlier this month, Guyana’s oil producing capacity jumped to 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) after ExxonMobil launched production from Yellowtail, the fourth oil development in the prolific Stabroek block.
Exxon and partners have found more than 11 billion oil equivalent barrels in the Stabroek block, where production was already above 660,000 bpd before the start of production at Yellowtail.
Guyana’s offshore oil field is a top-performing asset with the potential to yield even more barrels and billions of U.S. dollars for the project’s partners. Both Chevron and Exxon will benefit from Stabroek even at relatively lower oil prices, because the Guyana block is estimated to have a breakeven oil price of about $30 per barrel.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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