A Refinery for Guyana: Big thinking, bigger risks

(Kaieteur News) – “We cannot have crude oil and don’t have security of supply.”

So said President Irfaan Ali on August 26 as he unveiled an expansive conception of a national oil company. According to the Department of Public Information, the company would not invest in offshore production but would be built around a domestic refinery and expanded fuel-storage capacity. Ali said it would look “holistically at the entire ecosystem in terms of the supply” and could eventually position Guyana as a supplier of refined products to CARICOM.

“Ecosystem” is another of the President’s favourite words. It sounds great, but an ecosystem is not a business plan. Who owns the refinery, who finances it, who carries the debt and losses, and where does ministerial supervision end and commercial responsibility begin? Before taxpayers finance another presidential ecosystem, they are entitled to know whether there is a resident economic component inside it.