Trusted political leadership key to safe investments – Bharrat tells investors

Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat has assured energy investors that the current political leadership remains firmly committed to the prudent and transparent management of the oil and gas sector, noting that clear policies, strong regulatory oversight, and political stability continue to create a secure and attractive environment for long-term investments.

He made these remarks during his address to delegates at the Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo 2026.

“Many of you may probably don’t know that a few months ago we had our General and Regional Elections…and the people of this country would have renewed the mandate of His Excellency President Ali and the People’s Progressive Party Civic mainly because of the leadership that we are providing not only in the oil and gas sector but across all sectors in our country and the development, the rapid development that is taking place in Guyana today,” Minister Bharrat said.

He emphasised that the PPP/C led by President Dr Irfaan Ali has proven time and again that it is capable of providing excellent leadership.

“So, leadership is critical, decision making is very important, making bold decision is critical in developing any sector, more so the oil and gas sector that is so heavily capital intensive that making a decision can sometimes take you down the wrong road or lead you to massive success as we have seen,” the minister noted.

To further emphasise his point, Minister Bharat compared Guyana’s situation with the more resource rich Venezuela.

“The only good example I can draw, I can call on right now, is Venezuela. And I’m not saying that because of the controversy that they have with us. We don’t have any controversy with them but as you know they are claiming two thirds of our land but that is not the point here. The point is leadership.”

“Venezuela has almost 300 billion barrels of oil in reserve. In Guyana, we have discovered to date 11 billion barrels of oil but yet in a country with 300 billion barrels of oil, 7 million people have left that country over the last three to four years in search of a better opportunity and a better life for themselves and their families, and mind you they’re coming from a country with 300 billion barrels of oil. In a country with 300 billion barrels of oil their economy is probably one of the worst today while on the other hand, the country with 11 billion barrels of oil is the fastest growing economy in the world.”

This, he noted, is as a result of bold decisive and visionary leadership.

“Today, Guyana’s oil and gas sector is recognised as one of the best managed oil and gas sectors in the world among new oil producing country and that is something that we’re very proud of. That is something that we are very proud of but not boastful but proud of because it comes through leadership,” Minister Bharrat noted.

In this regard he assured investors that the PPPC administration is committed to the prudent management of the sector.

“…to ensure that the citizens of your country benefit from that resources that investors benefit from the investment in your country and that your country is seen as an investor friendly destination because of the management of your oil and gas sector and when we took over in August of 2020 that is what we started to do to build out a framework that will develop an oil and gas sector that can be categorised as world-class managed entity around the world and we started out by ensuring that there is accountability and transparency because there is true transparency and accountability to our people today we can see the massive transformation that is taking place and the benefits that is being derived from the oil and gas sector,” he said.