Book excerpt: This timely collection of essays on the past, present and future of Guyana as a major oil producer - capable of producing 750,000 barrels of oil a day - has been edited by John Mair, born in Guyana, an ex-BBC producer and director and credited with over 30 books, and Neil Fowler, a prestigious international journalist, provides an exciting and yet cautious insight into the future of the oil industry in Guyana and the country's potential.With a Foreword by Guyana's Prime Minister, Moses V. Nagamootoo, and contributions from a former Minister of Natural Resources, Robert M Persaud, and the highly respected Caribbean lawyer, Sanjeev Datadin, with extensive appellate experience in the Caribbean Court of Justice and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and leading academics, industry consultants and historians, this book is an authoritative guide to a country poised to become a major oil producing nation. The Prime Minister writes: "As this hitherto unknown country, re-named the Co-operative Republic of Guyana from its colonial appellation British Guiana, approaches its Golden Jubilee as a Republic, its new image as the promising major oil producer is that of the fabled El Dorado - the lost city of gold."