Guyana must be alert to US-Venezuela oil deal

Dear Editor,

Kiskadee Watch’s Reuter-sourced news article, “Experts, lawyers puzzled over US-Venezuela oil deal, call for contract transparency,” (Monday, August 31st, 2026)^[1], closely follows headline-making news across multiple online media platforms since Friday, August 28, 2026, when the United States government announced it had reached agreement with the Venezuelan government for the U.S to take 65 billion barrels of oil.^[2]

BBC News, one of the many internet platforms, reported U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio as describing the oil deal as “…a huge win for both the American and Venezuelan people.^[3] For the Venezuelan people, this deal will bring nearly $100 billion in private investment, support thousands of high-paying jobs, and drive the reconstruction of Venezuela’s economy.”

With that kind of money going into the Venezuelan economy, I couldn’t help immediately asking what would be the effects, if any, on Guyana’s economy with U.S oil companies returning to Venezuela, but especially given that Guyana already has two U.S oil companies and one Chinese company producing our oil?

Ironically, because of past U.S sanctions, Venezuela, which has the world’s largest crude oil reserves of over 300 billion barrels, is not even in the current top five oil-producing countries. Those bragging rights go to America (13.6m barrels per day), Russia (9.9m bpd), Saudi Arabia (9.6m bpd), Canada (6.0m bpd), and Iraq (4.4m bpd).

With America now looking to ramp up oil production in Venezuela, via U.S companies, not only can America extend its oil production dominance, it might also be able to influence the supply and demand economics side of the oil market, which includes setting oil prices.

This then puts tremendous pressure on China and Russia – both of which seemed to have had a strong foothold in Venezuela up until last January when Nicolas Maduro was President – to come up with securing an increased share of other available oil nations, like Iran, which reportedly ranks 6th, right behind China, among major oil producing nations. Venezuela, not surprisingly, now ranks 19th.

Meanwhile, with Brazil ranking 7th, the BRICS group, seen as an emerging economic bloc, could still pose an economic threat to the United States if China and Russia team up to strengthen economic cooperation with Iran, which officially became a BRICS member on January 1, 2024. While Guyana – with 11 billion barrels of oil reserves and producing over 900,000 barrels of oil per day – shares 26th place ranking with India, the dynamics taking shape in Venezuela are more about geopolitical strategic importance for America than just oil production.

It’s about who has the bigger share of global control and influence, an area which China has gained significant ground in the last two decades by flooding the world with Chinese nationals and goods manufactured/produced through the abundance of cheap Chinese labor in China. I hold firmly to the view that America cannot compete and win against China with increased oil control alone; it will need an abundance of cheap labour to increase manufacturing and production at home to flood the world market, and that was what migrants from Third World nations brought to America until the mass deportation started.

As the world watches to see if the Trump administration figures out the vital role of cheap labour in an ever-changing world market, Guyana must remain cognizant of the benefits to be derived from the expanding presence of American economic interests, via oil companies arriving in Venezuela. Thanks to our oil reserves, Guyana arguably owes its sense of protected sovereignty to the United States when it comes to Venezuela’s designs on seizing our Essequibo as recent as 2025. But with President Trump scheduled to demit office in January 2029, no one knows how long the United States will be Guyana’s defender.

While our neighbour to the east, Suriname, is no major threat like Venezuela was, it must still be monitored from a diplomatic and defensive perspective. Ranked 90th among oil producing countries, Suriname has a state-run oil company that is involved in oil exploration and production, and oversees international oil partners from France, America and Malaysia. But any noticeable acquisitions of major military hardware not commensurate with its size and population should be taken seriously by Guyana, which needs to start bulking up its military.

Guyana is a sovereign nation with an abundance of natural resources, chief of which is its oil that is fully under foreign control. But maybe the time has come for Guyana to follow Suriname’s lead and start exploring and producing our own oil. To this end, the PPP government should be facilitating overseas-based Guyanese as oil investors who will become owners of and enjoy the oil wealth of the land outside of fake contracts and cash grants. We can’t go on solely depending on international investors.

Time for the PPP to grow up and make space for the Guyanese people to grow, too. Stop the control and dependency syndrome.

References

1. Experts, lawyers puzzled over US-Venezuela oil deal, call for ... — www.reuters.com ↩
2. Trump says U.S. has entered deal with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of oil reserves — www.inquirer.com ↩
3. US and Venezuela reach 'historic' oil deal, Trump says - BBC News — www.bbc.co.uk ↩