Guyana is preparing to submit reports as part of its obligations to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in the coming months.
Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, explained during an August 14 press conference that the 2022 and 2023 EITI reports will be submitted months ahead of their respective deadlines.
Bharrat was keen on making this revelation, acknowledging that the country was temporarily suspended in 2023 for late submission of its 2020 report.
“I know that we had issues with reporting in the past… I’m happy to say this time around that we are going to submit the 2022 EITI report, which is due December of this year, we are going to submit it next month [September],” Bharrat stated.
The 2023 report, he added, is expected to be submitted in the first quarter of 2025, way ahead of the December 2025 deadline.
“So, we are way ahead in terms of our submissions with our reports,” Bharrat stated.
OilNOW understands that BDO Guyana, which has worked on previous Guyana EITI reports, has been recruited as an Independent Administrator to produce the two reports.
Further, the Minister revealed that the Guyana EITI multi-stakeholder group has reached a critical milestone for the advancement of beneficial ownership transparency in the extractives sectors. He said the group approved and adopted the country’s beneficial ownership roadmap.
So far, the government has been requesting data on beneficial ownership from companies, which is in turn published, though disclosures are not yet comprehensive.
Guyana joined the EITI in 2017, two years after the first discovery of commercial crude offshore. The country has committed to producing reports with a comprehensive view of government revenue and associated information, concerning the sectors of oil and gas, mining, forestry and fisheries. The reports are evaluated against the EITI Standard. The 2019 Standard is currently being used to assess reports. However, the 2023 Standard will be used starting in January 2025.
