The Energy Governance and Capacity Initiative (EGCI), a United States Department of State-led effort in collaboration with the government of Guyana on Tuesday opened a three-day workshop to provide capacity building assistance to stakeholders in the energy sector.
According to a government Information Agency (GINA) release, the EGCI is aimed at providing a range of technical and capacity building support to host governments of selected countries that are on the verge of becoming the world’s next generation of oil and gas producers.
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Robert Persaud while speaking at the workshop held at Cara Lodge under the theme “Offshore oil and gas discovery, Reservoir Management and Unitisation: The U. S. Model”, revealed that the legislative framework that currently guides the governance arrangement related to oil and gas production and exploration in Guyana is currently under review by a team from the Commonwealth.
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Robert Persaud with Bureau of Safety and Environment Enforcement Office of International Programme Chief, Cheri Hunter and the bureau’s unitisation supervisor (Gulf of Mexico), Mark Hanan at the workshop
The Commonwealth team began reviewing the legislative framework three weeks ago and will make recommendations on the systems and policies that need to be put in place to ensure the country is prepared for oil and gas discovery and production.
“We ought not to wait until we discover and then start to get our act together, it is about getting our act together very early so that we can properly manage and account for the sector,” Minister Persaud said.
The workshop forms part of government’s multi-sector approach aimed at bolstering the country’s resources capacity and capability to better manage its heightened energy profile. The Agriculture Ministry on Monday commenced a two-week training workshop on bio-energy at the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA), with participants drawn from several agencies.
Minister Persaud said that the workshop is timely, and that the U. S. support could not have been more appropriate given the present on-going drilling operations of Repsol and CGX in the country. He said that whilst government is not at present in a position to say that it is sure of discovery, there is however, some level of expectation based on the geological data and other works.
Minister Persaud said that should the country realise commercial production of oil and gas, then this would be a new area of focus, and in this regard, emphasis is being placed on building and developing the capability and capacity to deal with the issues to ensure effective governance of the impeding sector. To this end, he said that the partnership with the U. S. forms only part of its effort at capacity building as the government has already been engaging several other partners and assessing the country’s agencies and institutions to determine their capacity and resources to effectively manage the new industry.
He assured the U. S. team conducting the workshop that the country has over time looked at the various concepts that the participants would be engaged in, and said the U. S. model for oil and gas exploration and discovery may be one of the better ones that the country can utilise so as to ensure that Guyanese and all the stakeholders attain maximum benefit from oil and gas exploration.
U. S. embassy Charge d’ Affaires, Thomas Pierre said that if indeed oil and gas production is confirmed in Guyana, it is critical to have a framework in place for all stages of development. He said that ECGI allows for this by providing the country with top U. S. experts and their unmatched global expertise relating to the issues to provide knowledge that will bolster the country’s capacity “to maximise the value, efficient and positive development impact of oil and gas production and associated revenue flows”.
The workshop will feature a series of presentations on oil and gas exploration by a team of personnel from various fields within the BSEE. The team will illustrate the processes and procedures that will be expected if oil is discovered in Guyana, and emphasis will be placed on offering guidance as it relates to the utilisation and regulatory practices that encourage safe and environmentally sound oil and gas exploration, exploitation and development activities.
