Dear Editor,
Dr Mark Bynoe, the Head of the Department of Energy in Guyana, re-assured a room full of oil men and prospective investors that the government of Guyana would treat them fairly and transparently in their dealings on the huge oil reserves off-shore Guyana.
Dr Bynoe was speaking at the Guyana Oil and Gas Summit held in Central Hall Westminster, London on Wednesday 3rd July. About 100 crammed into the conference, many paying up to £800 a day to attend. They included those already investing in Guyanese oil, those that wanted to and those who wanted to service the nascent industry.
The mood was very up-beat with Eco Atlantic/Tullow Oil announcing they were to commence drilling in the Orinduik field the very next day July 4th. Results would be known by mid-August. They expected a reserve of 4.5 billion barrels in their franchise which added to the 5.5 billion already declared by ExxonMobil in the Stabroek Field puts Guyana well on the way to the 13 billion forecast by the US Seismic Survey. Guyana is the new Klondike for the world’s oil industry with GDP forecast by the Commonwealth Secretariat to expand by 30% in the next five years, government expenditure by 34 percent. There was little room for doubters in that room.
Bynoe had journeyed to London with his adviser Matthew Wilks and EPA chief Dr Vincent Adams to give the opening keynote address. His mission to reiterate policy outlined before. In essence, to turn ‘the natural capital of Guyana into human capital’ through ‘evidence based decision making’ and a ‘practical and pragmatic approach’ in dealings with the investors.
In his view, the framework was already being built through regulation –the Natural Resources Fund Bill and the Petroleum bill having gone through the National Assembly. The Guyana Energy Czar stressed the firm need for local content and for SME (small and medium enterprises) to be involved in all bids. He revealed that a Local Content Bill was on the verge of being presented to the Cabinet.
His problem was one of resources. The Department has just eighteen staff and just four or five of those are ‘professional staff’. He did say he was hiring four or five new lawyers to negotiate but their work would be supervised by a foreign law firm .Not a huge team to deal with and regulate the multi-national oil companies,
In essence he wanted the proceeds of the oil boom to provide ‘equitable and sustained growth’ for the country and his government was determined to do ‘what was right for the Guyanese people’.
Other speakers were equally bullish. British High Commissioner to Guyana Greg Quinn, whose term in Georgetown has just been extended to August 2020 to cover any upcoming elections, said the country was on ‘the cusp of transformation’. The Guyana High Commissioner to the UK Hamley Case in his opening address. declared the oil find an ‘important one’. He also announced that he was off that very day to negotiate with Virgin Atlantic about extending their Gatwick-Barbados flights to Georgetown at least once a week to take advantage of the likely increase in passenger numbers.
Guyana is now a big player on the world oil stage. This summit showed how big.
Yours faithfully,
John Mair
