GUYANA · FOREIGN POWERS
Key Facts
- The country Guyana has 878,674 residents (2022 census) and an offshore oil boom run mainly by foreign companies.
- Oil ExxonMobil holds 45% of the offshore Stabroek Block, Chevron 30%, CNOOC 25%; output averaged about 902,000 barrels a day in early 2026.
- Lenders At end-June 2026 Guyana owed the Inter-American Development Bank US$1.28 billion, Chinese creditors US$443 million and the Caribbean Development Bank US$394 million.
- Security The US signed a security memorandum with Guyana in March 2025 and a defense declaration in October 2026.
- Border Venezuela contests the Essequibo region; the International Court of Justice held hearings in May 2026 and has set no judgment date.
- For US readers Chevron and ExxonMobil hold 75% of the oil block; the State Department advisory of 26 August 2026 rates Guyana Level 3.
Three oil companies run the offshore boom that lifted Guyana’s economy by an estimated 33.3% in the first half of 2026: ExxonMobil and Chevron of the United States, and CNOOC, a Chinese oil company. Around them stand lenders, builders, armies and diplomats from Washington, Beijing, London, Brasília, New Delhi and the Gulf, and as of October 2026 a Venezuelan claim to Guyana’s Essequibo region still awaits a ruling from the International Court of Justice, the main United Nations court.
Why Outsiders Care About Guyana
Guyana is a country of about 879,000 people on the north coast of South America, and it shares borders with Suriname, Brazil and Venezuela. The World Bank puts its offshore oil and gas reserves at more than 11 billion barrels, and the country entered the bank’s high-income group in 2023.
Guyana foreign interest falls into four groups: oil and gas, gold, lending and construction contracts, and the border dispute with Venezuela, all covered on the Guyana page and in the economy key players profile. The Ministry of Finance says in its 2026 mid-year report that growth of 33.3% largely reflects the first full half-year in which four floating production vessels, the ships that process offshore oil, ran at the same time.
The Oil Companies Behind the Boom
The Stabroek Block, the offshore license area that produces Guyana’s crude oil, is operated by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited with 45%, and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana holds 25%. Chevron holds the other 30% after it acquired Hess, the previous partner, in July 2025, as its annual report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in February 2026 states.
Under the production sharing agreement, the companies may recover their costs from up to 75% of gross revenue, and the remaining profit oil is split 50/50 between the partners and the government. The ministry cautions that the government will receive more than 12.5% of gross revenue as profit oil while the partners keep recovering current costs.
In the first half of 2026 the government received US$1,778.6 million as its share of profit oil and US$218.4 million in royalties. The Natural Resource Fund, the country’s sovereign oil savings fund, held US$4,294.2 million at the end of June 2026 after withdrawals of US$1,020 million.
Four production vessels averaged about 902,000 barrels a day in the first half of 2026, and a fifth, Errea Wittu, is expected to produce its first oil in the last quarter of 2026. The ministry says the Whiptail project is on track for 2027, Hammerhead for 2029, and Longtail, the first gas-focused development in the block, is planned for 2030.
Much of the money flows back out: net payments for factor services, which include earnings sent home by the foreign partners, rose to US$4,737.1 million in the first half of 2026. Net foreign direct investment was a negative US$2,994.4 million, which the ministry attributes to higher cost recovery in the block.
The Lenders Financing Roads, Bridges and Airports
Guyana’s public and publicly guaranteed debt stood at US$8,573.1 million at the end of June 2026, of which US$3,306.4 million was owed abroad. Multilateral lenders held 61.5% of that foreign debt, other governments 33.6% and private creditors 4.9%, the ministry’s creditor table shows.
The Inter-American Development Bank, a regional lender owned by governments across the Americas, was the largest creditor at US$1,284.8 million, followed by Chinese creditors at US$443.0 million, the Caribbean Development Bank at US$394.4 million and the United States at US$240.8 million. The Chinese figure covers China Eximbank, China CAMC Engineering and China Road and Bridge Corporation, while the US line covers the US Export-Import Bank and Public Law 480 loans.
Contracts signed in the first half of 2026 show who is building what: the Caribbean Development Bank signed a US$50 million environment policy loan on 27 April, and Bank of China signed a supplemental loan on 13 February to complete work on the New Demerara River Bridge. Banco Santander signed a loan on 12 June for a new arrivals terminal at Cheddi Jagan International Airport, and China CAMC Engineering signed a deferred-payment deal on 15 April for the New Bartica Hospital.
The bridge itself was contracted in May 2022 for US$260 million with a joint venture of China Railway Construction companies, the Ministry of Finance said at the time. The 2026 Budget Speech plans to complete the Linden to Lethem road corridor, including a bridge at the Kurupukari crossing, and to build a new municipal airport at Lethem.
The United States and Guyana’s Defense
In Georgetown on 27 March 2025, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Guyana’s Foreign Minister Hugh Todd signed a security cooperation memorandum of understanding, as the State Department’s own photo caption records. The US Embassy in Georgetown followed on 23 July 2025 with an announcement that the two countries would partner to boost Guyana’s forensic and fentanyl detection capabilities.
On 21 October 2026 President Irfaan Ali and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signed a Joint Declaration for an Enhanced Defense Partnership at the Pentagon in Washington, Guyana’s Department of Public Information reported. The release says the US side will provide sustained defense expertise, multidomain training and combined exercises with the Guyana Defence Force, and will help build Guyana’s air-domain awareness.
The declaration builds on both countries’ founding roles in the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition and the Shield of the Americas, which the Guyana government links to the fight against narcotrafficking. The same release calls it the latest milestone in a partnership that spans security, energy, trade and investment, a theme explored in the Pentagon partnership report.
China, India and the Gulf
China appears in three roles: CNOOC holds 25% of the Stabroek Block, Chinese lenders and contractors hold US$443.0 million of Guyana’s debt, and Bank of China holds a further US$109.6 million as a commercial lender. The China trade report tracks the commercial side of that relationship.
Zijin Mining Group of China lists the Aurora Gold Mine in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni region at 85% ownership on its website, and the 2026 Budget Speech calls Aurora the lone large-scale operator in Guyana’s gold sector. Crude oil made up 92.9% of exports in the first half of 2026 at US$15,053.7 million, while gold earned US$826.2 million.
India holds US$82.2 million of Guyana’s debt, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency signed a loan for water supply improvement on 22 January 2026. Venezuela, which disputes the border, is itself a creditor, with US$76.5 million still owed at the end of June 2026.
From the Gulf, Guyana owed the Islamic Development Bank US$104.7 million, Kuwait US$16.0 million and the United Arab Emirates US$9.1 million at the end of June 2026. Qatar has opened a resident embassy in Georgetown and the United Arab Emirates is expected to follow, the 2026 Budget Speech states.
Venezuela’s Claim and the World Court
Guyana’s government calls the dispute with its western neighbor a border controversy, and it filed its case at the International Court of Justice on 29 March 2018. The case is known as the Arbitral Award of 3 October 1899 case, and the Court ruled on Venezuela’s preliminary objection on 6 April 2023.
The Court issued an order on provisional measures on 1 December 2023, and Guyana’s government says it returned to the Court in May 2025 to stop Venezuela from holding elections in the county of Essequibo. Venezuela filed its final written pleading, a Rejoinder, on 11 August 2025, and the Court held public hearings on the merits from 4 to 11 May 2026.
As of October 2026 the Court lists the case among those currently being heard or under deliberation, and its calendar shows no public hearing scheduled. No judgment date has been announced, a gap that the Essequibo court report also notes.
The Guyana Defence Force said that on 4 May 2026, the day the Court’s hearings opened, a boat patrol escorting three civilian boats from Makapa to Eteringbang came under fire near Black Water on the western border, and one soldier was wounded. The force said it returned fire, moved the convoy out of the area and was evacuating the wounded soldier to Georgetown.
Training with partners continues: Operation ZEUS Atlantic 2026, a regional operation against transnational organized crime, concluded in Guyana on 22 May 2026 as the third ZEUS mission hosted there since 2024. Trinidad and Tobago, French Guiana, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Honduras, Suriname and Colombia took part, the force said.
Migration runs the other way as well: the United Nations counted 40,545 Venezuela-born people living in Guyana in mid-2024, up from 1,181 in mid-2015. The figures show how closely the two countries are tied even while their governments dispute the border.
Britain, Brazil and the Neighbors
King Charles III began a two-day state visit to Guyana on 29 October 2026, and the government’s press office says the program includes a meeting with President Ali at State House and a reception with British businesses to learn about partnerships and investments. The visit coincides with the second Global Biodiversity Alliance conference in Georgetown, where the king is due to meet scientists, Indigenous community members and innovators.
On 29 October 2026 Finance Minister Ashni Singh held talks with the visiting UK Foreign Secretary and toured the new terminal at Cheddi Jagan International Airport, a US$65.5 million project built by the UK firm Mowlem International with support from UK Export Finance, Britain’s export credit agency. Guyana owed the United Kingdom US$105.1 million at the end of June 2026, the ministry’s creditor table shows.
The Guyana Defence Force said on 5 October 2026 that its 29th regional military exchange with the Brazilian Armed Forces was held in Boa Vista, Brazil, co-chaired by the commander of the Brazilian Army’s 1st Jungle Infantry Brigade. Both delegations discussed illicit trafficking, illegal mining and transnational criminal networks along the southern border.
The 2026 Budget Speech says the planned Lethem airport would help Region 9 become a hub for trade, tourism and connectivity between northern Brazil and the Caribbean. Brazil’s then president Jair Bolsonaro visited Georgetown on 6 May 2022 for a bilateral meeting with President Ali, as the Palácio do Planalto, Brazil’s presidential office, recorded.
Belize, the Dominican Republic and France opened resident embassies in Georgetown within the past five years, Colombia re-established its mission, and Peru is expected to follow, the 2026 Budget Speech states. Guyana sat on the UN Security Council in 2024 and 2025, and on 20 October 2026 its Department of Public Information described Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett as Guyana’s candidate for UN Secretary-General.
Politics at home shapes these ties, as the politics key players profile explains, and the geopolitics explainer sets out the wider balance between the great powers. The Guianas explainer places Guyana beside Suriname and French Guiana.
Carbon Credits, Aid and the Diaspora
Forests cover 87% of Guyana’s land, and in 2025 the government sold jurisdictional carbon credits to what the 2026 Budget Speech calls a major international company, one of the world’s first such voluntary-market purchases. Revenues passed US$300 million by the end of 2025, and the government targets cumulative revenues above US$1 billion by 2030.
The World Bank Group and the government held a country portfolio review on 23 October 2026, where Finance Minister Ashni Singh said the focus must be on execution. Projects under review included coastal adaptation and resilience, integrated transport corridors and a One Health program, supported by the International Development Association, the World Bank’s concessional lending arm.
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs counts 469,649 Guyana-born people living abroad in mid-2024, equal to more than half of the 878,674 residents counted at the 2022 census, and 314,783 of them lived in the United States. The US Census Bureau’s 2025 American Community Survey counts 275,183 Guyana-born residents of the United States, with a margin of error of about 15,400, and about 160,000 of them live in New York.
Money from relatives abroad is a measurable flow: net private transfers, the balance-of-payments line that includes remittances, were US$1,036.7 million in 2025 and US$478.7 million in the first half of 2026. Net official transfers, which include grants between governments, were only US$5.6 million in 2025.
What It Means for US Readers
Two US companies, ExxonMobil and Chevron, hold 75% of the Stabroek Block between them, so output and prices offshore Guyana feed into the earnings of both. The government took US$1,778.6 million of profit oil in the first half of 2026, and the production sharing rules decide how much of each barrel’s value stays with the companies.
The State Department’s travel advisory of 26 August 2026 rates Guyana Level 3, Reconsider Travel, because of crime, and says violent crime is common, especially at night. It lists Stabroek Market in Georgetown as off limits to US government employees at all times and advises avoiding National Park and the Seawall after dark.
US firms seeking contracts should study the local content rules: about US$466.2 million was spent on goods and services in sectors prioritized for Guyanese participation in the first half of 2026. The ministry says an online portal launched in that period now clears new local content applications from firms that are not wholly Guyanese-owned within 21 working days.
What Is Not Known
The Court has not said when it will deliver its judgment, and it is not known how Venezuela will respond to a ruling. The calendar of the International Court of Justice shows no public hearing scheduled as of October 2026.
The Ministry of Finance’s report does not name the projects behind the rise in debt owed to the United States, from US$0.2 million at the end of 2025 to US$240.8 million at the end of June 2026. It also projects US$194.7 million of 2026 borrowing from creditors that are still to be determined.
The government is still reviewing the Longtail gas project’s field development plan and production license application, and the Haimara project’s environmental authorization is in process. Approvals and exact start dates for both were therefore unknown as of October 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns the oil in Guyana?
The Stabroek Block is operated by ExxonMobil with 45%, while Chevron holds 30% and CNOOC of China holds 25%, as of October 2026. The government receives royalties and a share of profit oil under the production sharing agreement.
Who is Guyana’s biggest foreign lender?
The Inter-American Development Bank was owed US$1,284.8 million at the end of June 2026, the largest creditor in the Ministry of Finance’s table. Chinese creditors followed with US$443.0 million and the Caribbean Development Bank with US$394.4 million.
Does the US have a military agreement with Guyana?
On 21 October 2026 President Irfaan Ali and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signed a Joint Declaration for an Enhanced Defense Partnership. It promises defense expertise, training and combined exercises with the Guyana Defence Force, and follows a security memorandum of March 2025.
Has the International Court of Justice decided the Essequibo case?
No, the Court has not yet ruled as of October 2026. It finished public hearings on the merits on 11 May 2026 and has announced no date for its judgment.
What role does China play in Guyana?
CNOOC holds 25% of the Stabroek Block, Chinese lenders and contractors hold US$443.0 million of Guyana’s debt, and Zijin Mining lists 85% of the Aurora gold mine. Chinese firms also build projects such as the New Demerara River Bridge.
Is it safe for Americans to visit Guyana?
The State Department rated Guyana Level 3, Reconsider Travel, on 26 August 2026 because of crime. It says violent crime is common, especially at night, so travelers should follow its guidance on markets and after-dark areas.
How many Guyanese live in the United States?
The US Census Bureau’s 2025 American Community Survey counts 275,183 Guyana-born US residents, with a margin of error of about 15,400. The United Nations estimate for mid-2024 is 314,783, out of 469,649 Guyana-born people abroad.
Sources: International Court of Justice, Guyana v. Venezuela case page; International Court of Justice, pending cases; International Court of Justice, calendar; Guyana Ministry of Finance, Mid-Year Report 2026; Guyana Ministry of Finance, Budget Speech 2026; Department of Public Information, defense declaration, 21 October 2026; Department of Public Information, state visit, 29 October 2026; Department of Public Information, UK talks, 29 October 2026; Department of Public Information, World Bank review, 23 October 2026; Guyana Defence Force, Brazil exchange, 5 October 2026; Guyana Defence Force, Operation ZEUS, 22 May 2026; Guyana Defence Force, border patrol, 4 May 2026; US Securities and Exchange Commission, Chevron annual report, February 2026; ExxonMobil Guyana, 12 November 2025; Zijin Mining Group, Aurora Gold Mine; World Bank, Guyana overview; Guyana Bureau of Statistics, 2022 census; United Nations Population Division, International Migrant Stock 2024; US State Department photo caption, 27 March 2025; Guyana Ministry of Finance, Demerara bridge loan release, 30 December 2022; Department of Public Information, UN Secretary-General candidate, 20 October 2026; US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2025, table B05006; US State Department, Guyana travel advisory, 26 August 2026.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief