Dear Editor,
Dr. Tilokie Depoo’s recent letter makes the familiar case for a domestic oil refinery, but it does so in a vacuum. It speaks of strategy, value addition, and regional leadership, yet sidesteps the basic question that must be answered before any of those ambitions can be taken seriously: can Guyana actually support and properly manage such a facility?
Right now, the answer is far from convincing. History would inform us that no Government have ever been able to bring any substantive project to a successful completion and under budget, save and except the new Demerara River Bridge — with a few quirks,
A refinery is not a slogan. It is not a ribbon-cutting exercise. It is one of the most demanding industrial undertakings a country can attempt, requiring reliable energy, strong technical oversight, environmental discipline, port infrastructure, storage systems, and a level of project management competence that Guyana has not yet demonstrated on major state-led ventures. To pretend otherwise is to invite another expensive national disappointment.
The truth is that governments are rarely good business operators. They are better suited to creating the conditions for business than running business themselves. Trinidad and Tobago’s refinery has been shuttered for years, and efforts to revive it now depend on a different commercial arrangement. St. Croix’s refinery Hovensa has also become a cautionary tale of operational failure, environmental controversy, and prolonged shutdown.
These are not distant examples. They are warnings from our own region about what happens when refinery projects are treated as symbols instead of enterprises. Guyana’s situation is even more precarious because the country has not yet resolved the most basic precondition: stable and affordable energy to power such an industrial asset. Without that, a refinery is dead on arrival. And if the State cannot even bring major projects — GtE, to completion without controversy, delays, overruns, and public mistrust, then why should anyone believe it is ready to take on a refinery of this scale?
That is why the real answer is not for the Government to jump headlong into owning and operating a refinery. The better approach is to build a properly serviced industrial zone with power, water, access roads, port facilities, storage, and logistics support, then invite private investors to establish refineries, agro-processing plants, and manufacturing operations under a transparent incentive regime. Let the State do what it should do best: provide infrastructure, regulate fairly, and collect revenue as gatekeeper and landlord. Let the private sector take the commercial risk.
If Guyana is serious about industrialization, then seriousness must begin with realism. A refinery is not the starting point. It is the end point of a long chain of preconditions that must be met first. Until those fundamentals are in place, refinery talk is little more than political theatre dressed up as development and another opportunity for the usual suspects to dip into the” cookie jar” repeatedly.