Guyana’s economic rise and the growing role of its private sector were the focus of a panel discussion at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) on May 7. The South American nation took the spotlight in the ‘Around the World Series’ held under the theme From Emerging to Thriving: Guyana’s Economic Development and its Private Sector’s Growth in an Era of Oil and Gas.
The session was moderated by Christopher Chapwanya, Chief Executive Officer of Sagacity Inc.
President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Kathy Smith, provided an overview of the Chamber’s focus on local content and the importance of ensuring benefits for Guyanese companies partnering with foreign firms. She said the GCCI was an early proponent of the local content legislation and spoke about the growth of the Chamber’s membership to nearly 1,000 over the past several years.
Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest), Dr. Peter Ramsaroop, discussed the country’s integrated development strategy, which includes the modernization of pre-oil industries, like mining and agriculture, and the creation of new ones. He stressed that investment must be aligned with local content utilization.
GCCI Executive Member and economist Richard Rambarran addressed macroeconomic considerations, outlining measures taken to prevent overheating of the economy. He said it is important that the environment remains stable and shielded from direct exposure to price volatility.
As an example of fiscal safeguards, he pointed to the Natural Resource Fund, Guyana’s sovereign wealth fund, which is intended to ensure stable and sustainable financing for the government’s development programs. The Fund’s legislation, in place for several years, places limits on annual withdrawals and mandates periodic public disclosures on its operations.
President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge, reflected on the company’s operations, noting that crude production reached 668,000 barrels per day last week across three offshore developments. He added that a fourth floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) is expected to begin operations by August 2025, raising total daily production to 900,000 barrels.
Among the local businesses represented on the delegation was Blue Water Shipping, a transport and logistics company. Its Senior Vice President, Richard DeNobrega, discussed the company’s approach to capacity-building as a key pillar in the local content journey.
“Some of the most successful companies in Guyana right now are the companies that have balanced training and capacity enhancement with investment,” DeNobrega said, adding that Blue Water Shipping focused on this by training staff at an internationally accredited freight-forwarding academy in Europe.
Director of the Vreed-en-Hoop Shore Base, Nicholas Deygoo-Boyer, also contributed to the panel, offering a perspective on infrastructure investment by local firms.
“We recognised that one of the things that were missing from Guyana was critical infrastructures for Exxon’s operations. When we conceptualized this, we looked at those factors and then we internally made the decision—are we willing to take the risk and invest?”
He explained that while the risk was evident on paper, confidence in the industry’s projections and input from stakeholders supported the move.
