The Guyana Government is looking to put systems in place for the country’s oil and gas industry which could stretch well into the next half century. As such, serious consideration is being given to the establishment of an onshore facility in the country which could be jointly operated with neighbouring Suriname.
This is according to Guyana’s Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman, who on Thursday met with members of the media to provide an outline of the Ministry’s work programme for the year and flagged the preliminary talks.
Mr. Trotman told reporters during the media engagement Suriname currently expends some US$1M per day utilizing the services of an onshore base in neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago and as such the two countries were exploring the possibility of jointly operating one out of Guyana.
According to Mr. Trotman, there are a number of other companies currently undertaking exploration works in the Guyana basin including Repsol, CGX Energy Inc. and others and “so we see the need to ensure that the development of the industry is better managed.”
Mr. Trotman told media operatives that government also sees the need to ensure that the oil related developments are not isolated to one county or section or region of Guyana.
Speaking at his Brickdam, Georgetown Headquarters, the Natural Resources Minister disclosed there is a need for more regions, “certainly along the coast to benefit directly…so government will be taking a more direct role.”
Addressing the matter of the shore base, he told reporters that in future government may seek to have equity or a minority stake of ownership in such a facility.
The Minister disclosed that government has been in receipt of overtures from its South American neighbor to the East, Suriname, “that we may partner with them in an industrial zone.”
Pointing to the discovery of natural gas along with Guyana’s crude, the Minister drew reference to the fact that Suriname has begun an aggressive exploration programme targeting gas fields.
This activity, he said, is being serviced using the shore bases in Trinidad and Tobago at a cost of US1$M a day, “and so there is a suggestion that we could perhaps share facilities in East Berbice.”
He later told the media government continues to explore the construction of an onshore base at ‘Crab Island’ Berbice – construction of which is pegged at US$500M.
“We are going to do a feasibility (study) on Crab Island starting in February,” he said.
According to Mr. Trotman, government was looking for the best locations for onshore facilities while at the same time ensuring that “no one zone or zone gets under development from oil and gas.”
The GoG….should be the facilitator of hore base lands, beneficiary of selling those lands if they are state, beneficiary of taxes collected from business’s operating on shore base and overseer of EPA requirements for shore base. ALL development should be in the hands of private Companies and individuals. That will be the most profitable for the taxpayer of Guyana . Plenty of money in Guyana from private developers to join up with oversees Companies.
Agreed, and it should be done by Guyanese business only, not the foreign registered ones, the indigenous ones. Suriname should just pay to use it. We have a lot more oil than they do, so maybe it’s not feasible for them to do it. They could not foresee this when they were evicting the CGX ship back on the day.