With oil production estimated to begin in approximately six months, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving to prepare an assessment that will identify the possible risks to Guyana should an oil spill occur and it is expected to take several months.
The risk assessment will help to form part of government’s National Oil Spill Response Contingency Plan, which Director-General of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) Lieutenant-Colonel Kester Craig says is about 90% done and “will be in place before first oil.”
“There is need for a more detailed risk assessment and we have outlined it with the EPA and they are working on having the assessment done. This is because we want to be able to say ‘This area range here and here, this is what will be affected. If it involves mangroves, sea turtles, fishes, farms… whatever it is, we want to know and to plan accordingly,” Craig told Sunday Stabroek in an interview last week.