Taladro, bebé, taladro

Guyana ranks #1 among Latin American and Caribbean countries in GDP per capita, driven by its massive offshore oil boom.

Taladro, bebé, taladro.

I am told that’s Spanish for drill, baby, drill.

In Guyana, the only Latin American country with English as its official language, they just say drill, baby, drill—and the black gold from that oil has made a once-impoverished Guyana the richest nation in South America and the Caribbean.

Guyana borders Venezuela and is producing 900,000 barrels of oil per day. The nation’s population is 840,000.

Projections are oil production will double by 2030. It has 11 billion barrels in oil reserves, ranking 17th in the world.

A consortium of Exxon-Mobil, Chevron and a Chinese country has developed the nation’s oil industry. In 2015, Guyana’s GDP per capita stood at $5,640 per capita in current U.S. dollars.

A decade later, it grew fivefold to $34,310.

Drill, baby, drill.

Guyana rose from 140th place to 57th place in GDP per capita in ten years. It ranks amid Japan, Estonia, Brunei, Kuwait, Lithuania and Bahrain.

Yes, Japan. That is not a typo. The Lost Decade, an aging population, and a low birth rate cost Japan dearly.

A decade ago, Guyana had relatively zero oil reserves. Then came the discovery of off-shore oil. Ka-boom.

Reuters reported, “Guyana economy set to grow 16.2% in 2026, oil sector still main driver, finance minister says.”

Bloomberg reported, “ExxonMobil Corp. is betting the economic boom unleashed by its giant discovery in Guyana will give the company an edge when negotiating fiscal terms with other nations looking to develop their own oil and gas reserves.

“The U.S. supermajor says the breakneck production growth in the South American country shows Exxon can build oil projects faster and more efficiently than its competitors. It’s a unique value proposition that will ultimately make more money for countries—and Exxon, Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said in an interview.

But Guyana while is a rookie in producing oil, Argentina, an old-timer that has produced oil for more than a century, came out of semi-retirement to grab a few dollars more.

While Joe Biden was opening our borders, economist-turned-president Javier Milei was opening the oilfields in Argentina. The press has begun to notice.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported, “Argentina’s shale oil resource could be similar in size to that of the Permian Basin, the top oilfield in the U.S., Continental Resources CEO Doug Lawler said on Tuesday.

“Argentina’s projections show that oil output could reach 1.5 million to 2 million barrels per day in the next few years, but the U.S. oil firm believes the potential could be higher, Lawler said during an Energy Aspects conference in Washington.”

In November, Brazil Energy Insights reported, “In a surprise development, Argentina’s unconventional oil production hit a new all-time high for September 2025. This occurred despite overall monthly production falling marginally when compared to the prior period and shale gas output plummeting to a multi-month low. It is the prolific Vaca Muerta shale that is driving Argentina’s rapidly rising oil and natural gas production. The 8.6 million-acre formation is proving to be a boon to Buenos Aires and could very well be the long-awaited silver bullet needed to fix Argentina’s economy.

“Data from Argentina’s Ministry of Economy shows an average daily production of 833,874 barrels of crude oil for September 2025. This is 2% higher than August 2025 and a notable 14% greater than the same month a year earlier. This is a new average daily production record for Argentina, although total September 2025 output of 25 million barrels was 1% less than the 25.3 million barrels lifted a month prior.”

Production steadily increased to 882,200 barrels per day last month.

That’s a 16.5% increase from January 2025.

Argentina ranks approximately 28th in the world for proven oil reserves, 22nd in production, and ranks in the world for shale oil.

Its oil production now equals Venezuela, whose oil reserves are the largest in the world by far—and 100 times larger than Argentina’s.

When Milei took office, his homeland faced energy trade deficits and was a net importer of oil products and fuels. He took a chainsaw to regulation and within a year, he had flipped that around. Argentina scored a $5.7 billion trade surplus in energy in 2024, which rose to $7.8 billion last year.

Meanwhile, California is sitting on top of at least 10 billion barrels of untapped oil while producing one-third of the oil Argentina or Guyana produce.

California chose to regulate oil out of existence. Policy dictated by the asinine words of Barack Hussein Obama—we can’t drill our way out—is a mandate for mediocrity.

Poverty is a choice, my brothers and sisters.

Milei and Guyana chose to leave poverty behind.