Guyana’s newly established Department of Energy (DoE) is currently looking at a series of capacity building initiatives that will allow it to better meet its’ objectives in the country’s emerging oil and gas sector.
Since 2015, US oil major ExxonMobil has found more than 4 billion barrels of recoverable oil off Guyana’s coast. Multiple developments over the next decade will rake in tens of billions of dollars for the small country of just 750,000 people.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday at the Ministry of the Presidency in Georgetown, Guyana, Head of the DoE, Dr. Mark Bynoe, said, “The department is working to form close collaboration among sister agencies…We have been meeting with entities such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Guyana Revenue Authority, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, the Civil Defense Commission and Members of Parliament.”
He believes that such collaboration is indeed necessary, especially since the department is expected to take on a major management role of the oil and gas sector. Apart from that, he said the DoE has already begun drafting a roadmap and “it outlines Guyana’s management framework for the sector.”
He said it is the hope of the department that the document will be finalized at the end of November, this year.
Additionally, Dr. Bynoe revealed that an international firm will be contracted to undertake Guyana’s first cost recovery audit, under the existing Production Sharing Agreement with US oil company, ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd.
The department has also issued a tender for an international firm to assist in the review of the Liza Phase Two development plan.
Dr. Bynoe added that “We have received numerous expressions of interest and will soon be moving to the call for technical and financial proposals.”
The DoE will eventually become a ministry which will, among other things, see semi-autonomous regulatory agencies reporting directly to it.
