Speaking at an oil and gas forum on Tuesday in Houston, Texas, Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson boasted of the numerous investment opportunities and called on airlines to invest in a direct flight from the city dubbed “the oil and gas capital of the U.S” to Guyana.
“Guyana is almost a blank canvas to paint a masterpiece,” he told attendees at a Rice University, Baker Institute for Public Policy forum at the university.
Held under the theme, “Oil and Gas Development in Guyana’, the forum saw presentations from Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin, Head of Go-Invest Owen Verwey, Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, Newell Dennison and University of Guyana Vice Chancellor Ivelaw Griffith.
Patterson’s views were echoed by Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin and Schlumberger’s Managing Director of the Caribbean, Sean Herrera and Senior Director of consulting firm FTI Consulting, Jamie McInerney. Schlumberger is a major oil industry contractor operating here.
“Bring your expertise and your resources in investment to Guyana, I promise you it will bear fruit” Herrera said.
“Guyana is not without its risks and challenges. If you read the local media in Guyana you get a picture painted of vast challenges and a pessimistic view and when you get to Guyana you realize it is very different than some of the things you read about,” said McInerney. He said that he is impressed with the steps this country has made since its discovery of oil in 2015, as compared to many other countries and that the challenges he had were internal company policies.
He said that one of the issues the media focuses on is the immense wealth to be gained from oil and the possibility of this country easily falling into the resource curse. “That is really a warning and not a prophecy and Guyana is taking a step to avoid that curse,” he said.
The FTI Head spoke of Government’s Green State Development Strategy and the Sovereign Wealth Fund Bill which he said are laudable as this country has tapped into help from a number of internationally recognized bodies and donor institutions and was not “leaving that information to get dust on a shelf but using it”.
“Open, transparent regulatory framework and permitting process, tax and/or duty concessions and holidays, access to a skilled and educated workforce, free movement of capital and human resources at least in the early stages, no restrictions on foreign property ownership, a friendly banking environment, a stable political environment, and personal and asset safety and security being assured…I am happy to confirm the Guyanese government and the people have got those above things right,” he said.
For his company, he said their time here has “to be quite frank, it has been a very, very smooth road by and large”.
Patterson said that his government is working to ensure that the proceeds from oil and gas go to the people of this country not only now but for generations to come.
He said that investors should not worry about any government minister using proceeds for their own personal gains even as he joked that “I don’t think you will see me as Minister of Public Infrastructure building a palace of gold”.
Patterson said that there are numerous opportunities in the public infrastructure sector and told investors that he was open to new ideas and plans.
With one person lamenting the time to travel from Houston to Georgetown, Patterson used the opportunity to throw out to airlines that a direct Houston to Georgetown link would be a great investment.
It is to this end that moderator Dr. Francisco Monaldi said that he hoped the “folks at United [Airlines” were listening and would jump on the investment.
Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Annette Ferguson had in December told this newspaper that officials from United Airlines would have been meeting with Guyana Civil Aviation Authority officials soon. From those talks, Ferguson said that government hopes that the airline will propose to fly here and believes that 2019 would be a good year for that to happen.
The event was sponsored by the Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies with support from Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and assistance from Hughes, Fields & Stoby (USA) PLLC, TOTALTEC Oilfield Services and Relocaring2Guyana.
