According to Mining News Pro - That’s despite a warning from the US and its allies that Guyana risks international isolation over its botched presidential election last month and a collapse in oil prices.

The country is in the process of becoming a major oil producer, as it starts to tap massive offshore fields which are estimated to hold eight-billion barrels of crude. Energy companies including Exxon Mobil, Hess Corporation, China’s CNOOC and Tullow Oil have invested in the country.

The coronavirus pandemic, the slump in oil prices and Guyana’s own political crisis have still taken a partial toll on the country’s outlook: the IMF had forecast 2020 growth of 86% last October.

The first results in Guyana’s March 2 elections handed a victory to the incumbent, President David Granger. Representatives from the US, UK, European Union and Canada said the original vote count wasn’t transparent or credible, and that a president sworn in on the basis of it wouldn’t be legitimate.

Guyana Elections Commission head Keith Lowenfield presented a draft plan last week which proposes a period of 156 days for a vote recount, the government’s information service said.

The economy is likely to outperform anyway despite the political noise, as Exxon has forecast that Guyana will produce at least 750 000 barrels of oil a day by 2025, from zero just a few months ago.