US law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP and Guyanese Cameron and Shepherd, the oldest law firm in the South American country, have been awarded a contract by the Department of Energy to boost the legal framework for the oil and gas sector.
Director of the Department of Energy (DE), Dr. Mark Bynoe, told reporters on Monday the one-year contract valued at US$1.2 million will see the law firms working to revise, replace, develop and enact key pieces of legislation for the petroleum sector. The contract is being paid for through a US$20M capacity building loan from World Bank.
Dr. Bynoe said the consultancy is “critical in the DE setting out conditions that will level the proverbial playing field, bring greater clarity and certainty to the sector’s operations with enhanced operational efficiencies.”
The DE has also contracted a Petroleum Development Management Specialist and a Natural Gas Specialist to augment the entity’s technical staff complement, inclusive of its Crude Marketing Specialist Expert, Commercial Expert, Oil and Gas Expert and Legal Expert.
Dr. Bynoe said the Department is still in negotiations with a Petroleum Accounting Specialist and Contract Administration specialist. With these persons in place, he said, they would be in a better position to reduce value leakage.
