IN his book, ‘Out of the Desert: My Journey from Nomadic Bedouin to the Heart of Global Oil’, Ali Al-Naimi, the former Saudi Arabian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources (1995-2016) and who was previously the first Saudi President of oil giant Aramco, reports that, “[i]n the spring of 1933, even before Saudi Arabia was a year old, our king granted a concession to Standard Oil of California (Socal) to explore for oil across much of the vast Kingdom.

To fulfil its mission, the oil company created a subsidiary, California Arabian Standard Oil Co., referred to as Casoc. This was the small seed from which today’s mighty Saudi Aramco has grown.”
In this same book, the United States Secretary of State and former CEO of ExxonMobil Rex Tillerson is quoted as saying, “I spend all of my time thinking about what it is going to be like in 10 or 15 years, because I have to start working today. I think Ali Al-Naimi is very much of the same mind.”

There are lessons therein for us as Guyanese. What has been found by ExxonMobil to date, is not the be all and end all of oil and gas for Guyana. We are at the tip of the iceberg of discoveries, not at the tail end. And yet, being at the tip, what we know we will earn from what has been confirmed below our waters will allow us the prospects of rapid national infrastructural and social development, hitherto unimaginable.

Yet, we bicker.

Rather than heeding the advice of Tillerson and Al-Naimi and being consumed with how we will ensure that the transformative wealth, soon to be at our disposal is utilised based on our national priorities and needs, we have a chorus of persons who have chosen to be obsessed with being enveloped in a perpetual state of pessimism. This ought to concern us all and lead us to question motives.

Following the discoveries of 2015, Guyana has been on the fast track to first oil by 2020. We are progressing at breakneck speed, bucking industry trends, of 7 to 10 years from discovery to production. There is building excitement among our people.
This excitement, shared, whether openly or guardedly by all, is not being telegraphed by all.

While there are those who have raised valid and credible concerns and reservations, the plethora of negative ‘noisies’ comprises persons in three general categories: (i) those engaged in the usual playing of partisan politics, (ii) those who occupy a certain status quo, who feel threatened and have launched a campaign aimed at the zealous protection of their turf and, (iii) those who want in on the action and are using the backdoor stratagem of raising hell in an effort to demonstrate their worth.

The political opposition and oppositionists are doing what oppositions the world over in politics do–oppose. It is their business and purpose. They do this with the sole aim of achieving or reclaiming lost power. This is the nature and demand of opposition politics. The PPP impulsively opposing everything under the sun which is engaged in by this Coalition Government is not to be met with surprise. It is who they are, intractably and even unreasonably so.

There is one unequivocal caveat however. That caveat being that acting against the national interest, under any circumstances whatsoever, cannot be countenanced. Whether it is the suggestion that there should be consideration of ceding our patrimony and granting our western neighbour “access to the sea,” or any activity which can be considered economic sabotage, there can be nothing but zero tolerance for such posturing.

In the global context, Guyana is still at the stage of a small seed, as Saudi Arabia once was, and can grow to being an influential hemispheric power if we, as a nation, agree that the national interests are sacrosanct and are not to be subject to partisan politics.

Guyana’s social space is not vast. There are those, based on tradition and the social construct, who have wielded influence and who believe that such influence is an entitlement of theirs. They have sensed that oil will result in major shifts in this status quo, narrow or obliterate their perches and leave them with considerably less influence. In simple terms, they are quite satisfied with being big fishes in a small pond. Oil will expand Guyana’s pond and will allow for greater empowerment of a wider cross-section of our population.

The social elite is evidently threatened and there is a convergence of interests to wage a war of dissonance against Guyana’s emerging economy and prospects entering new and bold vistas. And then there are those who are desperate to be facilitated, even by improper political means and who have been rebuffed when attempts were made by them to collude. They now feel ostracised (as a result of their own unwholesome actions) and are using the public space to act up and throw barbs and tantrums, while engaged in disinformation, hoping in the end to be appeased by being brought into the fold.

The sickening paid advertisements in yesterday’s editions of Stabroek News and Kaieteur News is evidence of these interests having little, if any regard, for what is best for Guyana. As our nation’s largest oil and gas summit opened, they sought to scare investors. What would motivate anyone or groups of persons to pursue economic sabotage and injure the interests of the country and its people? The pursuit of political power? The protection of the status quo? Getting in on the oil action at any cost?
Surely maturity, patriotism and the national interest must take precedence. Otherwise, where will we be in 10 or 15 years? Still politically divided? Still a small seed?