A high-level Ghanaian team comprising Deputy Minister of Energy, Mohammed Amin Adam; Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Petroleum Commission, Egbert Faibille; CEO of the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC), Kofi Koduah Sarpong; along with other technical personnel arrived in Guyana last evening, said Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Monday.
This team which is in Guyana for an undisclosed number of days, will provide support in the areas of legislation for the draft Local Content Policy and the Natural Resources Fund (NRF). The team will also give its guidance on the US$900 million gas-to-energy project the government is pursuing in partnership with ExxonMobil.
Ghana team to review Guyana’s work on local content, gas-to-energy, NRF – Dr. Ali
“We are going to utilize the skills of the people from Ghana to assist us to create the architecture for the management of the industry,” the Vice President said. He added, “We have had a lot of consultants from northern countries and elsewhere, but it is time that we actually go to a country that had to build institutions from scratch in a relatively short period of time, and I tell you that they have enormous experience at doing so.”
In early 2022, Dr. Jagdeo stated that members from Ghana’s private sector will also be visiting Guyana to identify the sectors open for partnership and investment opportunities.
Ghana passes on key oil lessons, experiences to Guyana delegation
“These investors have various areas of interest including agriculture, mining, tourism, food production. We’re hoping that the local private sector can actively participate and create the environment for this partnership to prosper,” Guyana’s President, Irfaan Ali said last Friday.
Meanwhile, the draft Local Content Policy Bill and the amended NRF legislation are to be tabled in the National Assembly and debated before the end of the year. This was assured by the President, Vice President and the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat.
OilNOW had previously reported that the government is already in the advanced stages of completing its draft Local Content Legislation which outlines a sliding scale of targets to be achieved by petroleum companies and their subcontractors. One highlight of the document proposes that Guyanese should be utilized in 152 oil sector services with increased participation levels over a period of three to ten years.
As it relates to the NRF, the government has been adamant not to utilize any of the oil money at this time since the current formulation of the fund allows for too much political interference with undue authority placed in the Minister of Finance. The fund was initially established by the previous government. Notably, President Ali had shared in May that the Norwegian and Kazakhstani oil fund models are amongst some of the frameworks being examined to inform the new version of Guyana’s NRF legislation.
