Guyana earned US$377M from oil in first quarter of 2023

Guyana earned about US$377.14 million (or GY$68 billion) from profit oil and royalties from two oil platforms producing offshore Guyana in the first quarter of this year, according to figures published in the Official Gazette.

Four of the five payments received were profit oil payments. One payment valued at US$57.9 million (or GY$12 billion), received on January 30, was a royalty payment related to production in the last quarter of 2022.

Meanwhile, the first payment deposited on January 3 was the payment for the lift of profit oil executed on November 29, 2022 from the Liza Destiny Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel. That amounted to US$82.6 million (or GY$17.2 billion).

Subsequent profit oil payments were received on January 23 (US$75 million) for production from the Liza Unity FPSO, February 16 (US$82.2 million) from the Liza Destiny FPSO and March 20 (US$79 million) from the Liza Unity FPSO.

And based on information documented in the recently published Guyana Energy magazine, first quarter 2023 edition, Guyana has received payments from about 22 million barrels of oil, raking in a total of US$1.346 billion in revenue as of the first quarter of 2023.

These oil funds are saved in the country’s Natural Resource Fund (NRF) – popularly called the oil wealth fund.

That fund is used to finance Guyana’s development priorities and last year, some US$607.6 million was withdrawn to finance national development priorities. The 2021 Natural Resource Fund Act sets out how these funds must be managed.

Throughout this year, Guyana is expected to earn some US$1.6 billion from profit oil and royalties.