A day before Christmas 2019 ExxonMobil and its partners have lifted the first commercial crude from the Liza field. In and of itself this might seem innocuous enough for us not to pay attention, yet one should remember the name as Liza will bring about a transformational path for one of the most impoverished nations of South America, Guyana. Heralding a new petroleum-abundant epoch, Liza is in many ways a phenomenon – Guyana’s first-ever offshore discovery (in fact, a deepwater offshore find), brought from discovery to final commissioning in less than 5 years, it will inaugurate the largest GDP growth rate in the 21st century so far for any established nation. Merely a couple years ago Guyana was largely known for its insane suicide levels, now it is on OPEC’s radar as an OPEC+ disrupting element. Liza already loaded its first cargo over this weekend and the Suezmax vessel […]