Guyana’s oil resuscitates Caribbean exports for 2024… leads growth by 59.6%

Guyana’s oil sector played a key role in the Caribbean’s export recovery for 2024 with the country’s exports soaring more than 50 percent. A report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on trade trends in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has highlighted the country’s growing oil industry as the key driver from export increases within the region.

The IDB noted that estimates  for  the Caribbean point  to  a  striking  18.3percent  export  recovery  in  2024 following  the 14.9 percent drop in 2023. “However, this growth was almost entirely due to Guyana’s performance,” the report stated.  It was noted that the country’s exports soared by 59.6percent in 2024, building on its 15.8percent growth experienced in 2023.

Guyana had recorded in the first half of last year, a 67.1 percent growth in the oil sector with 113.5 million barrels of oil. An adjustment was later made by the government to reflect the 228 million barrels that would later exceed the initial 202 projection.

The IDB report noted however that following  the  contraction  of  2023,  the  Caribbean’s  exports  recovered  dramatically,  although  this performance was entirely driven by Guyana’s soaring oil exports. External sales, it was reported, remained on negative ground in the rest of the subregion, except Belize.

”Export growth in Belize was modest while exports from other Caribbean nations continued to contract. The European Union and the rest of LAC were the destinations that contributed most to the increase, offsetting declines in sales to Asia and the rest of the world.”

Major players like Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica saw exports fall by an estimated 13.1 percent and 9.3percent respectively in 2024. Barbados fell by an estimated 0.8percent in 2024, slower than the decline observed in 2023 at 4.1percent. Suriname ’s  exports  plummeted  by  an  estimated  40.5 percent   in  2024,  deepening  the  15.5percent  contraction recorded  in  2023. The Bahamas contracted  by  15.1percent  in  2024,  marking  a  second  consecutive  year  of decline 14.0 percent in 2023.

Guyana’s crude oil production is estimated at about 616,000 barrels per day (b/d) but is expected to increase to about 674,000 b/d this year. The country is expecting the startup of the Yellowtail project slated for the second quarter of this year. The projected is pegged at US$10M.