Miniature oil well with the OPEC logo in the background. File photo.
According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) “is courting Guyana to become its newest member, in a bid to extend the bloc’s influence to a small South American country that has suddenly become the world’s fastest-growing oil producer, according to people familiar with the matter.”
The New York City-based media outlet notes that “both Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman and Haitham al-Ghais, OPEC’s secretary general, invited Guyana to join” OPEC in recent months, “according to two OPEC delegates briefed on the approach.”
However, the real expectations of Guyana joining the organization are minimal. Guyana’s Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, told WSJ that “the country needs to maximize production—and profits—in the short term as oil demand is expected to decline in the coming decades.”
“Right now the idea is to extract as much of these resources as soon as possible because we don’t know for sure what we have available to us in the future,” Jagdeo said.
According to him, OPEC membership “would risk making Guyana subservient to the efforts of Saudi Arabia and other members, which have intermittently collaborated in recent years to curb global supply and support prices.”
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Oil production in Guyana is very dependent on US oil corporations’ decisions, and these corporations exert a significant influence on the White House decision-making process which has frequently been at odds with OPEC.
Guyana aims to increase its oil production by one million barrels per day by 2028, the same amount by which Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de facto leader, plans to increase its production over the same period.
If the Amazonian country joins OPEC, it will become the first new member in five years. With less than one million inhabitants, Guyana would be the smallest country in OPEC by population. In coming years, Guyana is expected to become one of the world’s largest per capita oil producers.
(Misión Verdad) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
