While the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will not have all the resources needed for complete oversight of the petroleum sector by first oil next year, Executive Director Dr. Vincent Adams believes that with current reforms underway and key help from the World Bank it will at least be prepared.
“The EPA is working with the Department of Energy (DoE), the CDC [Civil Defence Commission] and its multi-agency group and government to ensure this country is prepared for first oil and beyond. We also have support from the World Bank to do a gap analysis… and government is throwing its support behind us all to ensure this happens,” Adams told Sunday Stabroek in an interview.
“If everything I have told you comes to fruition, I think we will be prepared and with time we will strengthen because we have the support from both government and the oil companies, more specifically ExxonMobil, because it is EEPGL [Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited] that will first start pumping next year. We will have persons monitoring on the ships and not the office,” he added.