Guyana’s oil resource fund, Natural Resource Fund (NRF), is set to end 2021 on a high even with the slight dip in prices on the world market.

Guyana’s NRF is to end the year with over US$600 million and this is set to climb even higher as revenues could reach close to US$70 million.

This is slated to come from the sale of the country’s final oil lift for this year, which was completed a few days ago by the company producing oil offshore Guyana, ExxonMobil.

Although oil prices have dipped because of a new COVID-19 variant, which was first detected in South Africa, Brent – the benchmark Guyana uses to sell its crude – remains over US$70 per barrel of oil. This has allowed the NRF to reach US$600 million and counting.

Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat has confirmed that Guyana received its final lift and it will soon be exported.

Even amid the fluctuations in market prices caused by the global response to the new COVID-19 variant, Bharrat is hopeful that oil prices will hold so that Guyana could get the best price for its commodity.

Guyana has earned close to US$80 million from the sale of its penultimate lift for 2021, taking the total earnings in the NRF to over US$534 million.

According to the Bank of Guyana’s monthly report on the NRF, the aggregate sum moved from US$436 million in September to US$534 million in October.