Canadian consultant Rob Strong of Newfoundland Canada has expressed his appreciation for the work that Bobby Gossai Jr. has done for the Guyana Oil and Gas Association (GOGA). Gossai, GOGA’s former Chief Executive Officer, recently announced his decision to pursue studies in oil and gas, as a result of which, he vacated his post at the entity.
Strong was engaged by the Canadian Executive Services Organization in 2016 to assist in the establishment of GOGA and in this role watched the organization grow from a few members who had an idea into what it is today.
When GOGA approached Strong to assist them with the organization of its first conference he was somewhat skeptical as to what success might look like with the conference. In particular, Strong said, “At such short notice (January 29th) I don’t think that GOGA will attract more than 200 people at the conference which was being held in March 2017. How pleased I was to see some 500 people from several countries show up for the conference and a lot of that success is attributable to the work that Gossai did.”
Strong, a 38 year veteran of the Canadian east coast oil and gas industry, sees a bright future for oil and gas developments in both Guyana and Suriname. He was the one that stated after the first Liza discovery that “elephants don’t travel alone” and sure enough, it looks like Guyana does indeed have some elephants in its offshore basin.
Strong, along with many others, hopes that these developments are managed properly and developed for the benefit of all the people of Guyana. “It is also my wish that Guyana will take advantage of the lessons learnt from other jurisdictions, particularly in the way other countries have been able to grow their local content,” he indicated.
Strong says that besides the success of the offshore conference, GOGA has created “a winner” in their lecture series. “As someone who has attended three of these lectures over the past year I am pleasantly surprised to see the interest that developments in oil and gas is having and the thirst for knowledge is there. I mean, just think about it….GOGA has a lecture on subsea technology and over 100 people show up to listen and to learn,” he stated.
Strong said GOGA and Gossai are to be congratulated for the fine work that they have done. “I sincerely hope that it continues. It is critical that everybody in the country has knowledge of an industry that will change the face of Guyana in the future,” Strong said.
Gossai will be pursuing a Master’s Degree in the field of petroleum, energy economics and finance at the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom.
