-by NaAsia Bristol

Guyana is looking beyond the immediate value of its oil and gas resources with President Irfaan Ali pointing to Qatar as an example of what can be achieved when energy wealth is used to build a wider economy.

“Qatar is a country that has demonstrated not only leadership but has demonstrated the will and ability to use energy resources in a manner that leads to sustainable, resilient and long-term benefit for the country and its people,” he explained.

Ali says Qatar’s experience shows how a country can use its energy resources to create opportunities well beyond the energy sector.

And he believes Guyana has several of its own advantages including land, fresh water and a diverse natural-resource base which can support its own transformation.

But for the President, the key lesson is not simply earning revenue from gas.

“Of course, monetising immediately has its benefits that you can get the money now.But we want to create long-term opportunities. We want to create opportunities for Guyana for the next 50, 60 years. And how do we do that? We do that by leveraging this resource, creating value from this resource, and the value is created by the downstream industry, where we can now use the gas to power an alumina plant to process our bauxite, a large-scale urea plant that integrates our agriculture system and our distribution system throughout the Caribbean,” the president said.

The President says these industries can create local demand for energy while generating new investment, jobs and opportunities across other sectors.