With the country racing towards becoming an oil producer by 2020, the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) is moving to setup a branch here to cater for a growing number of United States companies investing in oil and gas, related and other services in the largest of the Caribbean Community group of nations.
Ambassador Perry Holloway announced plans for the establishment of the umbrella business body at a mid week American independence anniversary celebrations, saying that the AMCHAM will open its Guyana office by early August.
United States companies including Chevron, Halliburton, ExxonMobil, Anadarko Oil and American Airlines among others have all set up shop in the country in the wake of ExxonMobil’s “world class” 2015 oil and gas find that has set the stage for most of the world’s oil majors to invest in Guyana’s now proven offshore oil sector. American is set to begin a Georgetown-Miami run from early December, the first time that it will fly to Guyana.
“The first ever official American Chamber of Commerce will begin operations in Guyana. This is a great initiative that will help our two countries,” Halloway said, noting at 120,000 barrels per day from March 2020, Guyana will immediately be producing more oil than neighboring Trinidad which struggling to make 80,000 daily.
Exxon is planning to drill 17 wells in its first phase of production and up to 40 more in phase two around 2022 the company has said.
The ambassador urged Guyanese government officials, the private sector and locals in Guyana to put the impending oil sector in proper context, saying it could transform the country by leaps and bounds once production starts.
“This discovery of oil offshore is a really big, big, big deal and everyone needs to take it seriously. With a couple of more discoveries, Guyana will pass Norway. This is serious business. When Liza 1 begins producing in early 2020, it will produce 120,000 barrels a day. That is more than all 100 oil wells in Trinidad produce in a day. One well in Guyana will produce more oil in one day than 100 wells in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.
Other nations in the grouping producing oil include Suriname at about 16,000 barrels per daily from onshore wells in the west of the country and Barbados tallying about 1,6000 bpds also from onshore wells in the center of the island.
When up and running, the American Chamber will now have branches in Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica and Haiti among the Caribbean trade bloc nations and will become the key lobbying body for American enterprises in Guyana as well as serving and an information clearing house.
