Georgetown, Guyana (GINA) — As part of the Guyana government’s preparations for the oil and gas sector, efforts to engage international partners and countries continue. Last week, minister of natural resources and the environment, Robert Persaud met with a mission from the Bureau of Energy Resources of the US Department of State.
The Bureau was represented by director Paul Hueper and deputy director Nicole Gibson of the Office of Energy Programs, to further assist Guyana in the development of its technical capacity of the oil and gas sector.
Persaud noted that the government of Guyana has been working with the US Department of State since 2010 on human resources development for the potential hydrocarbon sector, through various workshops and seminars.
The energy governance and capacity initiative (EGCI) can assist in determining the best governance option for Guyana. The ideal situation is to govern by legalisation where petroleum revenues are separate and not available for normal usage. The Guyana government is currently seeking to undertake a study which will determine the best model for the development of a sovereign wealth fund type system, the minister said.
He pointed out that the first step must be to develop the governance and regulatory framework which will support the growth of the sector in the long term. Every country must have its own model for the development and management of this sector.
The ECGI will work with the ministry of natural resources and the environment and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission on the implementation mechanism for addressing the various issues of capacity development. The fields of work will be in drill well in deep-water areas and well test evaluation (productivity test) which will continue into the second half of 2015.
The EGCI is a US Department of State-led, US interagency effort to provide a wide range of technical and capacity building assistance to the host governments of select countries that are on the verge of becoming the world’s next generation of oil and gas producers.
The countries receiving EGCI assistance have world class hydrocarbon resource potential and expect to receive sizeable, near-term financial windfalls from the development of their oil and gas resources. EGCI’s core objective is to help these countries establish the capacity to manage their oil and gas sector resources responsibly. Although EGCI’s goals are country-specific in nature, the program broadly tries to ensure sound and transparent energy sector governance for the benefit of national economic development.