September 25, 2007

Oil in Guyana

Maclean's Magazine

I wrote in February about the curious water boundary dispute between the Caribbean nations of Guyana and Suriname that was standing in the way of drilling what could be an immense unexplored reserve of oil.  A Canadian company happens to have some of the drilling rights in Guyana but had its oil rig expelled by Surinamese gun boats in 2000.  Well, the case was recently resolved by a UN tribunal and Guyana has done well, and the Canadian company,CGX Energy is eager to start exploring. In my piece I also mentioned that if the oil starts gushing, the Canadian government and experienced professionals in the energy sector could play a constructive role in trying to help Guyana makes the most of the potential windfall through various kinds of technical and governance assistance. Will be interesting to see if that happens.

To refer to the previous article, see the following posting:

February 12. 2007

Oil and Troubled Waters

- Guyana could become very rich.  Too bad about that territorial dispute.

Maclean's Magazine