President Irfaan Ali wants the country to re-open discussions on having its own oil refinery, in light of global uncertainties and in order to protect Guyana’s energy future, and that of the region.

Delivering remarks at the Annual General Meeting of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry at yesterday, the President said an oil refinery will be needed as a critical national security priority amid escalating global energy uncertainties and supply chain disruptions.

The President explained that while Guyana had previously focused on expanding fuel storage capacity, global developments have necessitated a shift towards establishing a refinery.

“But now I believe we should return to the conversation of a refinery for national security because this challenge is really open up discussions globally and has reinforced what the US policy for the Western Hemisphere has been that we have to optimize our resources and development of the resources for the protection of our hemisphere and for the economic and energy viability of the hemisphere. These are no longer far-fetched thoughts, these are now realities,” the President said.

The President said despite Guyana’s emergence as an oil-producing nation,the country still depends heavily on imported fuel, particularly for electricity generation.

He noted that the fuel bill for the Guyana Power and Light Inc. remains substantial and could rise further with global price shocks.

According to the President, the current challenges in the Middle East will affect the global market for the next five years, noting that the cost of fuel and freight have already been on the increase and will continue to rise. He said the tourism sector is also expected to take a hit as air transportation costs will also see an increase.

“So, these are the challenges that confront us, outside of these challenges, the gulf oil output dropped from 21 million barrels per day to 14 million barrels per day. Then as a result of the impact of natural gas as we know, let us not forget that 80% of oil and natural gas comes from the gulf and the best estimate only 3.5m-5m barrels could be re-routed through pipelines, so that is how important the strait of hormuz is in this equation,” the President noted.

Oil prices have been climbing steadily since the US and Israel launched the war on Iran.

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