President Irfaan Ali has made it clear that the government intends to keep the current Production Sharing Agreement with ExxonMobil and its partners in place but will work to ensure that the country benefits more from future agreements.

The current PSA which gives sweeping tax relief to the oil companies and has been criticized for the 2% royalty to Guyana and other measures has been facing a mountain of criticism.

“We have an agreement so we have to honour that agreement. But we have made it very clear that there need to be improvements on future agreements and we are going to make those improvements on future agreements,” President Ali told a global business forum in Dubai.

The President said, however, that the focus now is to have more investments in exploration noting that the government will support not only exploration but development of oil fields

“Exxon has been pushing a lot of their investments in Guyana we are looking to move up to 1.2 million barrels per day within the next 3-4 years, that, of course, is going to help us to accelerate development in other areas,” the President said.

The President who is attending a major forum on Latin America in the United Arab Emirates said Guyana will learn from the experience of the UAE and other successful oil-producing nations as the country seeks to write its history as an oil producer.

“We are not in competition with anyone and we don’t want to be in a race with anyone and this is our global position. We just want to use the best examples, best practices, to do the best we can do for the people of our country and the people of our region, giving them a better shot at living a better shot at prosperity, and ensuring that the revenues help us to build an economy that reduces inequality and disparity,” the President noted.

During his attendance at the meeting, the President also discussed Guyana’s efforts to support economic diversification, including investments in non-oil sectors such as manufacturing, trade, and agriculture.

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