Guyana is a member of Petrocaribe, an alliance between Venezuela and Caribbean countries. Recent discoveries by ExxonMobil show that offshore Guyana is rich in oil and natural gas.
Until a few years ago, Guyana was known as a sparsely populated economic backwater on South America's Caribbean coastline. Then ExxonMobil announced a series of discoveries at its prospects off the Guyanese coast, revealing the latest find in early October. Now the country is poised to receive a windfall from oil and natural gas production. But as Guyana's government eagerly awaits what it hopes will be an oil-rich future, the country as a whole will reap fewer economic rewards than it might seem. A Low Priority, Once Guyana's rise as South America's newest oil producer will sharply contrast with its history as an impoverished, British-influenced enclave. Guyana is a small country, with only 800,000 inhabitants who are concentrated along the coastline and in the capital, Georgetown.
