With three floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels now in operation, the sale of crude oil between United Kingdom and Guyana has increased by 96.1 per cent for 2024.
According a report, issued by the Department for Business and Trade dated August 2, 2024, crude oil sale between the two nations amounted to £429.4 million.
In addition, the report revealed successes in the exports and imports for road vehicles and specialised machinery, which saw an increase of 22.5 and 11.1 per cent, respectfully.
In figures, road vehicle accumulated £35.1 million while specialised machinery was £16.0 million.
During a brief press conference on Tuesday, Country Director for Trade and Investment at the Department for Business and Trade, Sherwyn Naughton, explained that the robust growth in trade and investment between the UK and Guyana signals promising prospects for both nations’ economies.
“It’s really fixed in about four or five sectors that’s really account for the numbers but I know machinery, vehicles, equipment, petrol chemicals, pharmaceuticals are some of the key sectors that account for most of that trade and also in oil and gas being a recent sector accounts for a significant portion of the trade between Guyana and the UK,” Naughton said.
The trade and investment director added that due the increasing demand for UK products in Guyana and the growing inflow of goods from Guyana into the UK, bilateral trade relations are expected to continue on an upward trajectory in the coming months.
Meanwhile, as it relates to the sectors that performed poorly, he disclosed that the Guyana and UK Governments are working aggressively to ensure that the numbers increase in the third and fourth quarters of 2024.
These include trade for beverages and tobacco which saw a decline on 49.0 percent and wood and cork that also declined by 45.8 per cent.
“That is why we have our government-to-government partnership arrangement and that’s why we have the trade missions coming Guyana so that we can have a spill off effect into other sectors and we also focus at the high commission department heavily on sectors such as agriculture, security and defence, and food and drink to increase trade in those areas,” he added.
In 2022, trade between the UK and Guyana was 12.5 percent in 2022 for services only, however, in 2023 a substantial increase of 312.5 per cent or £1.2 billion recorded for goods and services.
Analysts attribute this significant surge in trade to the strengthening economic ties between the two countries. Guyana emerged last year as the UK’s 78th largest trading partner accounting for 0.1% of the total UK trade.
