How To Quintuple Your GDP In 5 Years

TL;DR

Guyana quintupled its GDP by striking oil — 11 billion barrels in the Stabroek Field that transformed it from a poor nation into South America's richest.

Key Points

• 1.The 2015 Stabroek Field discovery holds ~11 billion barrels of high-quality light sweet crude worth at least $600 billion, roughly 120x Guyana's pre-oil GDP.
• 2.Guyana's per capita GDP exploded from ~$6,000 in 2019 to $34,000 by 2025, briefly hitting 44% annual growth — higher per capita than Spain.
• 3.With only 800,000 people, Guyana will produce over 1 barrel per person per day, far exceeding Saudi Arabia's ~0.33 barrels per person per day.
• 4.The 2016 profit-sharing deal with ExxonMobil, Chevron, and CNOOC is extremely favorable to corporations — Guyana earns only ~$8.60 on a $60 barrel with a 2% royalty.
• 5.Guyana's model is Norway's $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund; Guyana has started its own now worth $3.5 billion, but corruption and ethnic political divisions threaten its stability.
• 6.Neighbors Venezuela and Trinidad show the "resource curse" in action — Venezuela collapsed into hyperinflation and mass emigration; Trinidad gained the 7th worst crime rate on Earth.
• 7.The US seizure of Maduro in the late 2020s removed Guyana's biggest military threat, as Venezuela had claimed 2/3 of Guyanese territory and positioned Iranian missiles offshore.