Earlier this year The Guyana Oil and Gas Association (GOGA) hosted its first Conference and Exposition under the theme, “The Initiation of a Transformative Industry”. The forum embodied presentations, papers and panel discussions which embraced the following issues relevant to Guyana pursuit of the journey towards becoming a responsible oil and gas-producing country:
1.Technologies for Offshore Development
2.Environmental, Regulatory and Safety Standards
3.Experiences from Other Territories
4.Business Opportunities
The event attracted more than three hundred participants from local interest groups, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the rest of the hemisphere. The presenters were identified from a broad cross-section of interest groups in the local private and public sectors and the international community.
The event was staged with a view to increasing the knowledge and improving the understanding of the opportunities that the oil and gas sector holds for the development of the Guyanese economy. Oil and gas represents a new economic frontier for Guyana and as such GOGA seeks to ensure that it can play a meaningful role providing the mechanism and forum for the development of this new area of business for stakeholders.
Through the recent forum GOGA sought, as well, to help build business networks that can foster relationships between stakeholders located both directly within and without the oil and gas sector, our priority being to ensure that the well-being of all Guyanese can be enhanced. The conference and exposition focused on bringing both private and public sector interests to the forum. GOGA intends to ensure that the forum evolves, in the future, as a key mechanism for information sharing and as a constructive gathering for stakeholders in the development of the hydrocarbons sector. The second Oil and Gas Conference and Exposition for GOGA will be held in March 2018.
GOGA is a not-for-profit non-governmental organization which has identified as its priority ensuring that the oil and gas sector of the Guyana economy is developed in the interest of the people of our country.
The structure of GOGA allows for the Association to work with government, the international community, non-governmental organizations and other private sector bodies in order to fashion a cohesive approach to the growth and development of the sector. GOGA’s ‘bottom line’ objectives are:
- Promoting the interests of Guyanese service providers to the industry in Guyana including drilling contractors, service companies, manufacturers, distributors, professional firms, financial institutions, consultants, engineers, pipeline providers, end users, royalty owners, and other stakeholder groups with legitimate interests in the sector.
- Seeking to ensure transparency, fair competition and equitable distribution of returns from the sector.
- Serving as an advocacy body for service/product providers and producers alike and contributing to policy formulation in association with regulatory agencies and government.
- Serving as a clearing house for discourse with government and regulatory agencies on issues affecting the performance of the sector.
- Serving as an advocacy body for issues affecting locally – based services and product providers.
- Providing and coordinating training opportunities in areas pertaining to the oil and gas sector.
- Serving as an advocate for legislative and other regulatory interventions aimed at the improvement and protection of the industry for the benefit of Guyana.
- Serving as a point of contact and source of information on local service and product providers.
- Serving as the repository for a reliable database of potential service/product providers.
- Serving as a reliable provider of due diligence on the aforementioned entities.
In addition to these broad objectives GOGA also seeks to serve to enhance sector awareness and to promote the importance of mitigating the environmental impact of sector-related activities. Critically, we also seek to promote, advocate, secure, prioritize and protect employment for Guyanese in the sector and to disseminate information to promote sector-related research.
Membership of the Guyana Oil and Gas Association is open to persons whose business activities are in whole or in part related to supporting, promoting and/or developing the oil and gas industry, as well as the broader energy industry. This includes individuals, companies, corporations, joint ventures, strategic alliances, partnerships, institutions or associations who are engaged in part or in whole in private, nongovernmental business sectors, related to the oil and gas industry.
