Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is preparing to introduce live surveillance of offshore drilling, a step the agency believes will transform how it monitors high-risk petroleum activities.
The update came during the latest edition of Starting Point, The Oil and Gas Edition, where Executive Director Khemraj Parsram detailed the next phase of the EPA’s monitoring system.
Parsram said drilling is “one of the most critical and most likely risky areas”, and that the agency now requires much more detailed information from operators. He explained that the EPA requires “daily production reports and detailed updates on every well drilled, including remote operated vehicle (ROV) imagery to confirm that there is no obstruction or damage.”
He described this requirement as an example of how the agency has strengthened its oversight tools. “We put that in the permit because that is what is available right now,” he said. But the plan is to go further.
“The intention is to actually have live video as much as possible,” Parsram noted. Such footage would allow regulators to see “when they’re drilling, when/if anything happens, we can see whether it’s negligence, whether it’s pure mistake, or unavoidable,” he added.
Parsram also emphasized the role of technology partnerships, including satellite-based spill detection. “We have that partnership with Maxar where we can look at spill detection and look at the extent of the spill, if it happens,” he said. Alerts generated by this system, combined with real-time well monitoring, would enable the EPA to respond faster.
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He said the push toward live monitoring is consistent with the agency’s broader goal of preventing incidents before they escalate. “Prevention is the first course of action,” he said. “Before every well that is drilled, the operator did submit to us a safety case. Every single well.”
Parsram said these reviews involve the EPA, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, and the Natural Resources Ministry. “We sit down with the operator,” he said. “They will present what their design is and how all the safety measures are put in place, and we give the go-ahead after we are satisfied.”
The EPA Director said the long-term vision is to have continuous, technology-driven oversight of all offshore wells. “The next step is live surveillance of well drilling,” he stated. “That will be inserted in the permit once it’s available and we’re capable of getting it.”
