GUYANA’s push towards a “green” economy could be funded by the oil revenues which the country will earn after production begins in 2020.
The new-found wealth could be spent on promoting sustainable development, said President of the World Wildlife Fund, Pavan Sukhdev during a presentation at the Marriott Hotel on Monday evening.

Persons in the audience used the opportunity to enquire about the possibility of Guyana using oil revenues to create and develop a green economy, something which government has been passionate about for years.
“Yes it can and should be done,” said Sukhdev, adding that Guyana should be part of the overall effort to protect the world.

He made reference to countries such as Norway and Saudi Arabia which have used oil bonanzas differently and in some cases to promote sustainable development.
The Norwegians, he said, have placed its oil revenues into a fund called the Government Pension Fund, which now has approximately US$1 trillion.
From that fund, the country does philanthropy, while Saudi Arabia on the other hand has started to use its revenues to transition its economy into one which is not dependent on cheap and readily available oil.

In 2015, the government rolled out the idea of a Green State Development Strategy which is meant to be a national development plan, providing long-term vision and guidance for Guyana’s economic, social and environmental development.
“Different countries have different response strategies…countries usually say we have the oil and why not use it for the benefit of our people, but they could use it to be part of the overall effort to protect the world,” said Sukhdev.

He believes that Guyana should follow the Norwegian model but, the WWF President has concerns about the agreement between Guyana and oil giant ExxonMobil, the company which is drilling offshore Guyana.

Unlike Norway, which takes a flat charge, he said the agreement here is on a basis of profit oil, which means net profit after absorbing the cost of extraction and institutional costs.
“If you wish to optimise your income you have to ensure that the profit model works better than the revenue model,” said the WWF president.

Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Guyana Perry Holloway has said that Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could increase by 1000 per cent by 2025 with the advent of the oil-and-gas industry.

Guyana recorded a GDP of US$3.6 billion in 2017, a figure which translates to approximately US$4,900 per capita.

The ambassador said based on the calculations and oil finds of U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil, the economy could grow rapidly within the space of five years.
ExxonMobil has made nine discoveries of oil offshore Guyana. The wells which were successfully drilled are Liza, Liza Deep, Payara, Snoek, Turbot, Ranger, Pacora, Longtail and Hammerhead.

Those discoveries led to the announcement of an estimated recoverable resource of more than four billion oil-equivalent barrels discovered to date; and the potential for up to five floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels producing more than 750,000 barrels per day by 2025.