Guyana’s wait for updated petroleum legislation is likely to be extended even further as Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC yesterday announced that the crafting of a legislative agenda will be done through a consultancy now being advertised, even as offshore production continues and government boasts of the 14 multinational companies working here.
“Currently, there is an ad in the newspapers inviting tenders for a drafting consultancy by the Ministry of National Resources, to draft a compendium of oil and gas legislation as they are highly specialized and technical,” Nandlall told Stabroek News yesterday when asked for an update on critical petroleum legislation.
“These will include, of course, the local content legislation, the environmental legislation, petroleum production legislation, etcetera. This team will obviously receive the requisite policy directions from the government and will be working along with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and his team on the project,” he added.
While oil was discovered in commercial quantities since May 2015, the archaic Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act, 1986 and its related Regulations form the main legislative and regulatory framework for all petroleum activity here.
The David Granger-led APNU+AFC government had waited four years to announce, when it was just three months away from the March 2nd , 2021 General Elections, that it was nearing a deal with a consultancy to help overhaul the legislative framework to regulate Guyana’s burgeoning oil and gas industry.
However, the elections impasse saw that process dragged out and the APNU+AFC government lost the elections, with the PPP/C taking the reins of government in August 2020. It was never disclosed which firm would have helped.
Shortly after President Irfaan Ali had established his Cabinet in August last year, Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat had said that petroleum legislation was high on the government’s agenda. He had especially singled out the Petroleum Commission Bill and the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) Act as two pieces of legislation to be addressed swiftly.
In October last year, he had again stressed the importance of laws to guide the sector and told this newspaper that the NRF Act would most likely be repealed sometime this year.
“We have to repeal or amend it but we haven’t gotten down to details as to what it would be as yet because we are focusing now on local content and want to push that out and then start focusing on NRF and the Petroleum Commission Bill,” Bharrat had told this newspaper.
“We are taking everything in stages but by early next year we will focus on it to see it enacted,” he added. Around US$200m in oil revenue has already accrued to Guyana and should be credited to the fund. The monies are with the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The Act cannot be activated until the various committees are constituted.
The Natural Resource Fund Bill, No. 14 of 2018, was tabled in Parliament on November 15, 2018. In the political limbo following the successful December 21st 2018 no-confidence vote against the former government, the controversial bill was passed without the opposition side of the House being present. It was subsequently assented to by then President Granger in January of 2019.
Nandlall yesterday repeated that the focus last year was on local content and that government wanted holistic planning for the sector. He explained that there was a “necessary delay” in the process moving ahead because “we had to do the consultation for the local content policy to inform the legislation”.
He said that government did not want the process done “piecemeal” and as such all will be done simultaneously since the benefits together outweigh piece by piece legislative crafting.
“We didn’t want piecemeal. We are looking at it holistically, and this is for a number of reasons. Having one consultancy will impact cost and speed in which the exercise will be completed,” he said.
