The Southeastern European nation of Romania has expressed interest in cooperating with Guyana in the area of Oil and Gas (O&G). Guyanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge, during a press conference at his South Road, Georgetown, office on Monday made the revelation of the European country’s offer of training in the petroleum sector. Mr. Greenidge has recently engaged in a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of that country Viorica Dăncilă.
According to the Foreign Minister, “Romania’s interest in cooperating with Guyana is an interest that reflects a decision by the Romanian Government to treat Guyana and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as the focal points of their cooperation with the region. And in that cooperation, they have identified a wide range of areas in which they have an interest. There’s oil and gas in which they have a capacity and are willing to do training.” Other areas that the country has offered to provide assistance in include matters pertaining to governance and corruption, as well as the Information, Communication Technology (ICT) sector.
Mr. Greenidge went on to say that Guyana has seen increasing interest from other countries as a result of its petroleum resources. He pointed to several countries such as Jamaica, Brazil, Russia and Trinidad which have all expressed their desire for increased cooperation during bilateral talks. “When you have a meeting with a bilateral at the level of foreign affairs, the discussions are of a general nature. Countries may express a wish to deepen cooperation with Guyana. It goes without saying that when you are a prospective oil producer you will have more interest than if you don’t have any special industries or commodities. In the course of these discussions the countries will offer to; say for example they have capacity in terms of an institute of Natural Resources or an institute that deals with oil and petroleum and gas, and would indicate that they have facilities that would enable them to undertake training of engineers and what have you,” he stated.
The Guyanese Foreign Minister shared that subsequent to these talks, “the executing agencies which are the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and the Ministry of Natural Resources, or the Ministry of Energy depending on the specifics, will then take the matter up from there.” He related that these offers are coming at a critical time as “we are at a point in which you clearly do not have sufficient skills and so the agencies ought to be seeking almost all the information on all who are offering to undertake the training and to see if they have Guyanese with the requisite level of skills for the intake.”
He went on to say that if a country is offering to take students into an institution, the Guyanese Government will need to know what sort of skills they can generate, as “almost anything in oil and petroleum we need training in.”
