The Government of Guyana on Monday tabled the long-anticipated Oil Pollution Prevention, Preparedness, Response, and Responsibility Bill 2025 in Parliament, moving to strengthen the country’s legal framework for managing offshore oil spills amid the rapid expansion of its petroleum sector.
The bill, also called the Oil Spill Bill, gained urgency following an oil spill off the coast of Tobago in early 2024, after a tug and barge ran aground, causing significant environmental damage. It also follows sustained public discourse on the need for a comprehensive national response framework as Guyana’s offshore oil production scales up.
Prime Minister Mark Phillips, who presented, said the legislation is meant to “make provision for preventative, restorative and compensatory measures in relation to oil spill incidents in the national territory…”
The Bill, when passed, allows for the establishment of a competent national authority to carry out its mandate, Phillips said.
While government officials maintain that a large-scale spill offshore Guyana is considered extremely unlikely, authorities have stressed the need for preparedness. ExxonMobil holds a US$600 million per-occurrence environmental liability insurance policy and a US$2 billion parent company guarantee to cover potential damages. In 2024, a capping stack, critical equipment for sealing a blown-out well, was brought into the country to boost the emergency response capacity.
The move to strengthen Guyana’s oil spill laws also comes against the backdrop of a legal battle. In 2023, Guyana’s High Court ruled that ExxonMobil had failed to comply with a permit condition requiring it to maintain unlimited and uncapped liability for cleanup and damages from any discharge of contaminants. The Environmental Protection Agency has appealed the decision, and the effect of the judgment remains stayed, pending the outcome.
Guyana began producing oil offshore in December 2019 and has since become one of the world’s fastest growing oil producers, with current output exceeding 600,000 barrels per day from an Exxon-operated consortium in the Stabroek Block.
