A Venezuelan Professor of Petroleum is currently in Guyana giving advice on developing the oil and gas sector in hopes that the country does not repeat Venezuela’s mistakes.
Professor Carlos Mendoza Pottella, who is the Visiting Advisor to the Central Bank of Venezuela and a retired Professor of Petroleum Economics at the Central University of Venezuela, is currently participating in the University of Guyana’s (UG) ongoing Green Economy Workshop.
Senior Lecturer of UG’s Department of Economics, Dr Thomas Singh says that during the Workshop, Professor Potella “freely talks about the situation in Venezuela, and even of the border issue, and has vast experience even with Venezuela’s international oil negotiations.”
He went on to say that the Professor’s vision “is clearly South American, and he is has been highly impressed by what he has seen in Guyana.”
According to Dr Singh, “His main hope is that his visit might contribute to ensuring that Guyana does not make the same mistakes as did Venezuela, but instead that we develop our oil sector to avoid the Resource Curse.”
Addressing concerns about the Professor’s ties to Venezuela and possible conflict of interest in his advice, Dr Singh stated that “Carlos is independent in his views and not in any way part of the political machinery of the Maduro regime, of which he has been critical.”
