Cost of producing oil in Guyana is lowest in the world – Foreign Secretary

Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud says that the cost of producing oil in Guyana is the lowest in the world and this is among the reasons that Guyana will be able to simultaneously pursue oil production and low carbon development.

Persaud told a virtual gathering at the 2022 Island Finance Forum that Guyana’s government is keen on using its oil and gas resources to fund the country’s development and promote the welfare of its people.

And he communicated the government’s intention to exploit these oil and gas resources in a way that caters for the protection of the environment.

“Our cost of production per barrel is the lowest in the world.

“We do not subsidise exploration… and our desire is to ensure our oil and gas development is consistent with our international commitment to the environment,” the Foreign Secretary told the virtual gathering.

A Wood Mackenzie study shows that Guyana has one of the lowest carbon intensity oil developments in the world. With this, Hess Corporation recently reported that Guyana is a major source of low-cost oil.\

Furthermore, Hess Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) John Hess recently said, “With multiple phases of low-cost oil developments coming online in Guyana and our robust inventory of high return drilling locations in the Bakken (in the United States), we can deliver highly profitable production growth of more than 10 per cent annually over the next five years.”

Meanwhile, Persaud said that even as Guyana develops a prolific oil sector, the country is intent on completely shifting to the use of renewable energy in a few years.

“We’ve come up with a suite of interventions to ensure that we’ve been able to find and develop renewables and the natural gas sector,” the Foreign Secretary said.

And while the government works on a plan to integrate the use of natural gas and renewable energy sources such as hydropower, wind and solar energy, Persaud spoke about the government’s ambitious plans to use oil funds to develop other productive sectors.

These sectors, he said, will be able to save the country from a dependence on oil resources.