Oil and Climate Change in the Guyana-Suriname Basin

This book is about oil and gas dynamics in the world’s newest petro-powers-in-the-making, and the attempts to balance this against the impact of climate change. The known oil reserves in the Guyana-Suriname Basin total some 30 billion barrels equivalent, and the gas reserves exceed 30 trillion cubic feet. This massive offshore discovery amounts to 10 percent of the world’s conventional oil, but Guyana and Suriname are also in a wet neighbourhood, where the impact of climate change stands to wreak havoc on the area and undermine some of the oil gains. Examining the political economy of petroleum production and some of the myriad challenges and opportunities involved, the expert contributors discuss the global and regional geopolitical and national security ramifications of the petroleum pursuits and explore global climate change dynamics and their effects on the region. This title will be of interest to students, scholars of international political economy, environmental politics, and the Caribbean. It will also be invaluable to policymakers in countries with business investments in Guyana and Suriname, especially in the energy sector and policy and operational staffs in regional and international organizations and companies.

Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith is a Fellow with the Caribbean Policy Consortium and Global Americans and a Senior Associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has published widely on Caribbean security and crime issues, the latest book being Challenged Sovereignty: The Impact of Drugs, Crime, Terrorism, and Cyber Threats (University of Illinois Press, 2024). Recipient of the Dr. William J. Perry Award for Excellence in Security and Defense Education, named in honor of former U.S. Defense Secretary, Ivelaw has served in several academic leadership roles, including as Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, President of Fort Valley State University, Provost of universities in Virginia and New York, and as a Dean at Florida International University. Also, he has testified before the U.S. Congress and served as a consultant to the U.S. State Department, the Commonwealth Secretariat, Canada’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and several other agencies. As well, he has been a visiting scholar at the Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies in Washington, D.C., the Royal Military College of Canada, and the George Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany.