Govt. to push energy development at second Int’l Energy Conference next year

Nov 26, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Guyana’s second International Energy Conference and Expo will be held from February 14, 2023 and conclude on February 17, 2023. The forum will be hosted under the theme ‘Harnessing Energy for Development’.

The inaugural Conference held earlier this year at the Marriott Hotel, Kingston featured Heads of States from Suriname, Ghana and Barbados. Thus far, Suriname’s President Chandrikapersad Santokhi is the only confirmed Head of State for the 2023 conference.

In the meantime, speakers confirmed from the oil and gas sector include Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Hess Corporation, John Hess and President of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions Company, Dan Ammann.

Locally, President Irfaan Ali, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat, Head of the Gas to Energy and Amaila Falls Hydro projects, Winston Brassington, Head of the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA), Dr. Mahendar Sharma, Head of the Local Content Secretariat, Martin Pertab and Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kemraj Parsram are confirmed participants for next year’s conference.

The conference is being hosted to allow energy professionals around the world to connect in Guyana to facilitate exchange of ideas, propositions, and plans for fundamental advances in the sector.

Participating companies at the conference will tackle important concerns affecting the energy sector, as well as challenges of climate change mitigation and maximizing the benefits of local content development in Guyana and the Region.

A few of the sponsors of the upcoming conference include GTT Business Solutions, Hess Corporation, the Guyana Shore Base Inc. (GYSBI), Technip FMC, Premier Insurance and Weatherford.

This year’s Energy Conference and Expo was held between February 15 and 18 and was themed ‘Charting a Sustainable Energy Future’. Speakers and other participants primarily focused on renewable energy and the importance of the sector not negatively affecting the citizens.

President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had said that, “To ensure energy sustainability, it is critical that we balance carefully social, economic and environmental benefits in a continuously changing world. No energy project therefore, no matter how high its return on value is worth it if the interest or some or majority of the stakeholders are not properly represented and they are left impoverished and dissatisfied.”

President Addo said that specific measures must be taken to mitigate such dreaded trends, resulting from poor management of the oil and gas sector.

Ghana, a west-African country, with a wealth of experience in the oil industry, has been mentoring Guyana as the country progresses with its oil and gas production.

Guyana, a newcomer, has been rapidly pushing to develop its new found resources to drive its development.