Seven years later… Guyana now making moves to set up data register for oil sector

Feb 02, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Natural Resources will this year commence the process to house Guyana’s technical petroleum data in-country.

Subject Minister, Vickram Bharrat made the disclosure during Day Two of Consideration of the Estimates in Parliament as the project is catered for in this year’s Budget. He told the National Assembly, “Indeed part of the allocation is to ensure that we start the process of having our very own data repository right here in Guyana.” The Minister explained that Guyana presently faces a disadvantage since these statistics is not held locally.

According to him, it is being held in the USA. “Presently, it is being hosted by one or two different companies in Houston that has the kind of capacity to hold our data and these are not new arrangements Mr. Chair. This is the arrangement that has been in place the previous administration has been in government,” Bharrat reported.

He urged that Guyana is losing revenue by not having the data in-country and acting as the sole responsible agent. In offering a case in point to the Assembly, the Minister explained, “we have this bid round, our bid round that is now public- 14 blocks up for auction. If any company- take for example Exxon- they need additional data on Guyana, seismic data or any other data then they have to go to this third party in Houston and to pay for that data. Of course 50 percent (of the revenue or service charge) will come to us but it is because we don’t have our own data repository in Guyana that we have to take 50 percent and not 100 percent so we are aiming to change that so we can have our own data, Guyana data stored in Guyana and we can manage it to make the revenue for ourselves right here in Guyana.”

Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat

The Natural Resources Minister said this is particularly important even as the country continues to develop its oil and gas sector as there will be more data required not only from the Stabroek Block but all other blocks offshore, onshore and near-shore.  To this end, Bharrat said provision has been made in this year’s Budget to start the process to get a consultant to assess the needs of the country to move in this direction.

“We will have to determine first of all what data we need to store; the size of the data; what software will be needed; what hardware will be needed; the specification requirements. These are all information that we need up front so there is an allocation here to hire a consultant to start the initial work so that we are advised properly before we rush in to set up the data repository in Guyana,” he pointed out.

This year, $500 million has been allocated for this project and others under the Ministry’s ‘Oil and Gas Sector Development Programme’. Notably, it is being funded through a loan by the International Development Association (IDA). This is an international financial institution which offers concessional loans and grants to the world’s poorest developing countries.

• budget, Data, ExxonMobil, oil, Register