THE announcement by the United States based petroleum company, Prime Energy LLC – Caribbean that it is hoping to make history with the establishment of the first ever oil refinery in Guyana, is certainly exciting and welcome news.

The company is pursuing the venture in partnership with Kuai Energy Systems and Chemexllc, and has signalled its intention to recruit 100 Guyanese to work with the company when it becomes a reality.

Foundation work is scheduled to commence in another six months with a period of 18 months time-tabled for the project to come on stream with an investment scale of US$75M.

President of Prime Energy, Jerry Brooks, explained that the refinery is a modular mini refinery with a capacity to hold 20,000 barrels daily.

Manufacturing of major elements on the refiners will be done in the United States and then shipped to Guyana for installation. Brooks explained that this approach will be taken to avert any factor that may stymie the project completion duration, such as inclement weather.

“A large typical refinery today can take up to seven years to build… and most people have the concept that they can’t build a smaller refinery because they have all these big markets that they want to supply. We’re looking for a small market to supply,” Brooks said.

Against the backdrop of spiraling global fuel prices and the fact that several international companies are currently carrying out aggressive oil exploration, both offshore and onshore in several parts of the country, and already the prospects by one company is optimistic, this encouraging news could not have come at a better time.

This venture would also fit in well in the long term, especially if current oil exploration results in commercially viable oil finds. Perhaps this could have been one of the major considerations by the company despite the fact that it plans to import crude oil for processing here.

Guyana currently spends a large amount of money on fuel importation because of high prices, and with the current trend of an increasing number of people acquiring personal vehicles, the spending on fuel imports inevitably will continue to climb.

Therefore, if the planned oil refinery becomes a reality then fuel import costs could be reasonably cushioned and funds saved could be diverted for a greater volume of developmental projects.

What is significant about the proposed oil refinery investment is that it demonstrates investor confidence in the Guyanese economy which is a prerequisite for economic growth. It also further refutes the arguments by some in our society who are contending that this government has, and is failing to attract, investment.

In fact, in recent years, there has been so much investment that the ‘song’ of failing to attract investments has been put into cold storage and is now replaced by another one which seems to be geared towards discouraging investors to come to Guyana.

And, in doing so, spurious allegations of corruption and lack of transparency are being made by these opponents of progress and national development who are desperately, like a drowning man clutching at a straw, making a last ditch effort to convince us that they are the guardians of the Guyanese people.

However, they have only succeeded in convincing us further that they are “sheep in wolves clothing.”