Guyana has received a whopping $150,021,165,894, or US$719,525,975.5 earned from its oil resource. This information was presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday, from the Official Gazette of Guyana as garnered from the Bank of Guyana.
This information was mandated, following the passage of the Natural Resource Fund Act 2021; a bill that received a whirlwind of criticism from the main Parliamentary Opposition, despite it provides this level of transparency.
The $150.02B represents payments for the lift of profit oil and royalty for the period January 1, 2020 to March 31, 2022.
The data presented, when analysed, revealed that a huge portion of the money Guyana earned from the oil and gas sector came from the sale of oil. Some $133, 131, 536, 503 (US $638, 250, 551.76) was received as profit from the sale of Guyana’s crude, while royalty received accounts for the remaining $16, 889, 629, 391 or US $81, 005, 423.75.
When disaggregated by year, Guyana raked in;
– $31, 058, 253, 225 (US $148, 957, 446.82) in 2020
– $95, 607, 580, 801 (US $458, 552, 548.5) for 2021
– $23, 355, 331, 868 (US $112, 015, 980.18) for January to March 2022
Guyana turned an oil and gas giant following the discovery of quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs and its subsequent extraction of its first one million barrels of oil in February 2020.
That milestone occurred at the time when Guyana celebrated 50 years as a Co-operative Republic.
Since entering office in August 2020, Government has avowed to use prudently and transparently, the accrued revenues the country receives from the oil and gas sector.
The passage of the Natural Resource Fund Bill epitomises the mandate of Government, being transparent and accountable.
To further prove transparency, despite the Natural Resource Fund Act came into operation on January 1, 2022, Government presented information for all the monies received from the sector, despite it was not mandatory. [Extracted and Modified from DPI]