Guyana
Guyana’s US$1.7B Gas-to-Energy Project: A Pathway to Prosperity or Pandora's Box?
By 
Kiana Wilburg |
Like many small-to-medium scale agro processors, 63-year-old Sandra Craig is eager for a solution to Guyana’s unstable power supply. Since moving from a small “snackette” in Orange Walk, one of the bustling streets in Georgetown, Guyana’s capital, to having her own agro-processing facility in Norton Street, Craig said major expansion could have been on the horizon were it not for the challenges posed by the country’s unreliable grid.
Back to Front: Exploitative International JVs, limited access to financing and gaps in a well-intentioned local content law hinder Guyana’s SME growth potential
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To front or not to front? That’s the billion-dollar question facing Guyanese businesses. Eager to tap into the South American country’s booming oil and gas industry, cash-strapped local enterprises unable to access financing from the banking sector have instead turned to joint ventures partnerships with international companies who use the arrangement as a handy way to conform to the country’s local content laws. Their company had been operating – and successful – for over a decade before Exxon-Mobil discovered Guyana’s first economically viable crude oil deposit in 2015, kicking off the country’s multi-billion-dollar economic boom. The discovery was transformative.