Guyana's Oil Bonanza: Big Oil Profits, Zero Trickle-Down Shock
Mainstream media outlet The Telegraph (bless their hearts) published a piece asking why Guyana’s newfound oil wealth isn't 'trickling down' to its citizens. They characterize the situation as a 'paradox' and question if the vast riches will 'ever trickle down.' How quaint. It's not a mystery, friends, it’s a design feature. ExxonMobil, Hess, and China's CNOOC own 75% of the Stabroek Block, where
11 billion barrels of oil have been found. Guyana's former energy minister, David Patterson, exposed the paltry 2% royalty rate and 50% profit-sharing after cost recovery—meaning Exxon gets to keep its 'costs' (and they've certainly made sure those are high) before Guyana sees a penny. This isn't a trickle-down problem; it's a siphon-up operation, generously facilitated by agreements that look
less like negotiations and more like colonial land grants. The wealth isn't trickling down because it's being aggressively pumped straight out.