Minister of State Joseph Harmon on Saturday said Guyanese can be assured there are strong measures in place to protect their shoreline in the unlikely event of an oil spill. He was at the time speaking at the closing ceremony of the Oil-Spill Response Training Course, which was held at the Splashmins Resort, Linden/Soesdyke Highway. This training course marks the culmination of the Incident Command System (ICS) Workshop for Oil-related Disaster Preparedness, which commenced on Monday last.
Minister Harmon explained that while an oil spill is unlikely to occur, this exercise is a necessary part of ensuring that the country is prepared for all eventualities as the oil and gas sector is developed. It brought together important stakeholders such as the Guyana Energy Agency; the Ministries of Natural Resources, Legal Affairs, Public Infrastructure, Agriculture, Public Health and Foreign Affairs; the Guyana Defence Force; the Guyana Marine Conservation Society; the Guyana Revenue Authority; the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission; and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority along with ExxonMobil.
“I trust that we will never have to get to this point [the point of an oil spill], but the fact that we are preparing for it, we are prepositioning equipment, we are training people and we’re putting them in various parts of the country, speaks to our ability to plan for these events,” the Minister said. The workshop was organised by the Natural Resources Ministry in collaboration with the Civil Defence Commission and ExxonMobil, which provided the instructors. A total of 37 participants undertook to workshop and were awarded with certificates after they gave a practical demonstration of the skills and training they received over the past few days.
