Govt. to brief Opposition Leader on oil preparations

Jan 27, 2017 News

Government has organized a briefing for Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, on the country’s

Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman

preparations on developing the oil and gas industry.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, as part of its preparations, the Ministry will be hosting a number of meetings in the coming weeks.
“Of note, Leader of the Opposition Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, M.P., has been written to by Minister of Natural Resources, Honourable Raphael Trotman informing him that a briefing has been organised for him on Guyana’s preparation for the Oil and Gas industry. This marks the second such invitation to the Opposition Leader who on a previous occasion was unavailable on the proposed date.”
The ministry said that members of the National Assembly, including those from the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources, will also be engaged on the progress of activities. These would be part of regular briefs they have been provided from Minister Trotman and team at the Ministry on the progress of preparations for oil and gas production.
“Further, efforts are underway to reach out to a wide range of stakeholders and the relevant private sector bodies and civil society groups have already benefited from these engagements. More consultations are currently being scheduled to share the plans and policies that have been developed for the oil and gas sector with an even wider cross-section of Guyanese.”
These engagements will commence during February 2017, the ministry disclosed.
The emerging oil and gas industry is an entirely new one for Guyana after a fortune-changing

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo

world-class discovery by US-owned ExxonMobil in 2015.
More wells by the exploration company have confirmed that the basin, located 100 miles off the shores of Guyana, in its Atlantic Ocean waters, hold between 800,000 to 1.4B barrels of oil, worth at least US$70B.
Guyana is currently training its technical people and other stakeholders, and has moved to implement new regulations to deal with the industry.
Production could start as early as 2020, ExxonMobil has said.