Executive Chairman of Ghana-based Cybele Energy, Beatrice Mensah Tayui, said her company will not participate in ‘rent-a-citizen’ arrangements as it enters Guyana’s oil and gas sector.
“We (Cybele Energy) will work closely to make sure that there’s no such thing as a rent-a-citizen,” Mensah Tayui said during her address at the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo in Georgetown last week.
“Our people in Guyana, please make sure that you’re equitable in any partnerships that you have, because we will fact-check and make it important that the people of Guyana benefit first when it comes to local countries.”
The “rent-a-citizen” practice involves foreign investors using Guyanese nationals or companies as fronts to circumvent provisions in the country’s Local Content Act.
Foreign investors operating within the 40 sectors and subsectors allocated for Guyanese businesses must structure partnerships with 51% Guyanese beneficial ownership in joint ventures to access mandatory preference in procurement.
Cybele Energy Ltd, a female-owned oil and gas company in the West African country, is the latest independent entrant into Guyana’s offshore energy sector.
Mensah Tayui said the company will engage regulators directly to ensure compliance with local content standards.“The one thing when it comes to local content is that we will work hand in glove with the Local Content Secretariat,” she added.
“The PSA that was signed on December 9 (20250 was not just about Cybele…that PSA was proof positive that you, as Guyanese, live in a broad-minded country, a country that’s willing to give opportunities to women and to the next generation,” she said.
The company was awarded Block S7 in 2023 by Guyana’s Ministry of Natural Resources, marking its first foray into the Latin American and Caribbean energy sector.
