Nothing, it seems, will deter Jamaica from joining the still modest CARICOM family of oil producers even as the three already “’signed up’ members”, of the wider global oil and gas community, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname continue, at their respective levels to press their respective energy sectors into becoming significant game changers for their economies.
Last week, the United Kingdom-based United Oil & Gas Limited announced that it had enlisted the Energy Consultant, Iman Hill, to bolster its engineering capabilities in the Jamaica’s offshore oil exploration. The announcement sends the most recent signal that Jamaica is not about to ‘park’ its petro dreams, leaving its economy overwhelmingly to the vagaries of tourism, agriculture and manufacturing. Jamaica’s determination to embrace an industry which, in a few short years, has radically altered Guyana’s development outlook and now appears set to do the same for Suriname, is reflected in the CARICOM member country’s refusal to separate itself from a vision of petro fortune inside its territorial waters.
Last Sunday, the Jamaica Gleaner disclosed that the UK Oil Exploration Company, United Oil, had recruited the Jamaica-based Hill “to bolster its engineering capabilities in offshore oil exploration in Jamaica.” The disclosure drops an undisguised hint that such economic options as the country currently enjoys, including tourism and an impressive track record in securing markets for its agro produce in North America are insufficient to allow it to keep up with the regional ‘Joneses’ whose energy sectors will continue to cause them to continue to be seen as the region’s investment havens. Enjoying, almost certainly, the highest profile among female oil experts working in the Caribbean, Hill, in the first instance, will serve United Oil under a three-month contract, “extendable or terminable with one month’s notice.” Her specific assignment, the Gleaner report says, will be to seek to find partners to co-invest with United Oil in exploration projects offshore Jamaica.
The Egyptian-born Hill is a Petroleum Engineer with 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry. Her profile boasts that she has held “various leadership roles at BP, Shell and BG, among others.” And that her experience “has been gained in the Middle East, North and West Africa, South America, the Far East, and the North Sea in a number of diverse settings from onshore to ultra-deep water.” Hill has also worked “with or alongside BP and, Shell” among other big name companies in the oil and gas sector. The Gleaner report suggests that Hill’s recruitment is an important strategic move by United Oil, with one of her critical assignments being convincing companies to invest in United Oil’s recovery operations offshore Jamaica.
In a region where few men have surfaced as ‘high fliers’ at the technical level in the oil and gas sector, the Stabroek Business is of the view that Iman Hill’s story is more than worth telling, even if briefly, here and across the rest of the region.
