# New Season Coming Soon: Light, Sweet Crude

An episode of [Drilled](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1439735906), 28 Feb 2023, 2:04.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/SxlTEPDY7xDg35RXkASs/pdrl.fm/3e5572/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/9a7ab5ee-ce11-48ff-a544-b3ec00ea9b1e/b0fa7791-b0df-4c86-a5d1-b3ec00f04d0a/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=7f82f371-6316-4ea6-a108-b3ec00ea9b2d

On paper, the small South American country of Guyana is the fastest-growing economy in the world, thanks to its oil boom. The country started shipping barrels of oil in 2019. Hotels are popping up all over its capital city. Historic homes are being turned into condos for visiting oil execs. But average citizens say they aren’t benefiting from the boom like they thought they would. And one lawyer is trying everything she can to stop her homeland from being changed from a carbon sink into a carbon bomb. In this special crossover season of Drilled and Damages, a look at 21st century oil colonialism, amid the climate crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: For more than a century now, the fossil fuel industry
[0:02] Speaker 1: has been telling one story more than any other. We
[0:06] Speaker 1: owe not just our way of life, but our lives
[0:09] Speaker 1: themselves to this industry.
[0:15] Speaker 2: Fossil fuel use does not contribute to improvements in life expectancy.
[0:22] Speaker 1: Does the promise of oil wealth actually pan out?
[0:26] Speaker 3: Generally does not pan out.
[0:28] Speaker 1: That's what the record shows today. Oil companies are racing
[0:33] Speaker 1: to drill while they still can in a global game
[0:35] Speaker 1: of high stakes musical chairs. No one wants to be
[0:39] Speaker 1: the company left holding the most untapped reserves when the
[0:42] Speaker 1: jig is up. And one small South American country is
[0:46] Speaker 1: at the forefront of this last wave of oil colonialism.
[0:50] Speaker 4: Offshore Guyana. We reached the huge milestone of declaring ten
[0:56] Speaker 4: billion oil equivalent barrels.
[0:58] Speaker 1: In three short years. It's gone for the world's top
[1:00] Speaker 1: eco tourism destination to one of the world's largest oil states.
[1:05] Speaker 5: The majority of people, including the IMF, have gone on
[1:08] Speaker 5: record as saying it was a very unfair deal.
[1:11] Speaker 6: For the end, it's really extraordinary the leverage industry has
[1:16] Speaker 6: over the country.
[1:18] Speaker 7: Oil has really changed the landscape. It's even more difficult
[1:24] Speaker 7: to criticize the government.
[1:27] Speaker 3: The amount a number of attacks we have received from
[1:32] Speaker 3: members of the government. It shows that the government is
[1:37] Speaker 3: not ready to accommodate persons who are willing to speak out.
[1:45] Speaker 1: Welcome to Light Sweet Crude, a new season from the
[1:48] Speaker 1: teams behind damages and drilled that looks at the idea
[1:51] Speaker 1: that oil makes everything better and asks who's really winning
[1:55] Speaker 1: in the fastest growing economy on Earth.

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