Ill-prepared ‘oil producing’ Guyana heading down a road to chaos

Jun 05, 2024 News

Attorney, Nigel Hughes

…lack of capacity will see foreigners reshaping country – Nigel Hughes

Kaieteur News – Guyana is heading down a road to chaos, given its lack of planning and capacity building-a situation that will not only lead to a permanent class of poor citizens, but also an increase in expatriate labour along with its concomitant effect.

These were among the views proffered by eminent Attorney-at-Law, Nigel Hughes, who was at the time a guest on an online panel discussion that was broadcast live.

Qualifying his position, Hughes pointed out that Guyana has “just finished five years of oil production, if you look at the amount of oil revenue and the demands on the system that will be made in the next five years as those next developments in the oil industry come on-stream there is no way Guyana is going to be able to satisfy that demand.”

He adumbrated further, “… we have not begun to demand of our government what is their plan as to how they are going to be dealing with this revenue throughout the economy, we going to be in chaos; we are going to be like a kid in a candy shop with more money and we going to die of diabetes.”

This he said, since at present “…there is no plan whatsoever as to how we are going to manage the economy across the board; we don’t have the capacity; do you understand what it is like to pour money into a system with revenues from oil where you don’t have the capacity.”

According to Hughes, it means that the whole country will be faced with the fact that there will be more foreign labour than local labour in Guyana over the next five years and as such the country will then have to deal with the consequences of that; “because when the foreign labour comes and makes children etcetera, etcetera, what you think is Guyana today will not be recognizable.”

Adamant his position was not “anti-progress” Hughes said “I am saying, we are doing zero planning; none of us and we can’t handle what we dealing with now, we have no plan for development as to how much of this money we are investing to protect ourselves, how much of this money we putting into infrastructure, how much of this money we putting into education and how it is that we are protecting our investment; that’s long before you come to leveraging more out of oil from the big producers, so we have some real major issues coming up.”

According to Hughes, “the most important and most fundamental aspect that will determine what kind of future we have is education, so let us agree on the best education model that will deliver the best quality education across the board which includes making sure that those people who are not economically fortunate are given the means so they can actually learn.”

In a 2022 study, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) had noted that Guyana is expected to become one of the top producing oil and gas economies globally within the decade, but despite the growth opportunities, the accelerated expansion of the related operations has exposed a pronounced gap between the industry’s labour demand and the availability of skilled workers at the local level.

Additionally, the ILO said the challenges for the local oil and gas industry are compounded by systemic local weaknesses including quantitatively (headcount) limited workforce, a marked gender gap (especially in terms of labour force participation) and by worldwide inter and intra industry competition for talent, notably the one at par with digital transformation or replacing retiring professionals.

The ILO said too that policies to address the current and future gap may include – as countries in a similar situation are currently choosing to address – the managed immigration of specialized labour and skills development strategies to respond to oil and gas, and, possibly, green transition needs.

Findings from the study also revealed that in relative terms, the main occupational profiles in demand for the next five years in the oil and gas value chain appear to be those of ‘engineering professionals’ (accounting for 15 per cent of answers to the question about most in demand occupation), ‘risk (environment and occupational health and hygiene) management professionals’ (11 per cent), ‘ships’ deck crews and related workers’ (10 per cent), and then in decreasing order, ‘finance professionals’, ‘mining and construction labourers’, ‘physical and engineering science technicians’, ‘sheet and structural metal workers’, ‘moulders and welders’, and ‘mineral processing plant operators’.

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo during a recent edition of his weekly news conference noted that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) since 2020, has fortified the country’s institutional architecture for the burgeoning petroleum industry to guarantee accountability and transparency. For instance, he said government established a Local Content Act in 2021, allowing thousands of Guyanese to be able to participate in the sector through employment and business opportunities.

In addition, the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) was updated, enacting a series of reforms to strengthen the regulatory infrastructure of the oil and gas industry. Moreover, the Petroleum Activities Act of 1986 was updated and in 2023, the Ministry of Natural Resources hosted an auction for its remaining oil blocks offshore Guyana, absolving the first-come-first-serve model and giving other investors a fair chance.

“Any independent observer would know that in the past four years, we have practically modernised the entire framework for the oil and gas sector. We have addressed all of the major issues in this sector,” the general secretary boasted.

This, he said is in stark contrast to what transpired under the coalition government, which hid deals and agreements from the public eye for many years. “No minister of the government answered any question about the oil and gas sector. That was their legacy. The People’s Progressive Party resumed office, and we are extremely proud of what we have achieved in that sector over the past four years that we’ve been in office,” Dr Jagdeo reminded.

Jagdeo also criticised the opposition and certain sections of the media for lacking profundity in addressing constructive policies relating to the management of the petroleum industry. He believes that this is how they seek to distract from the successes of the government in managing the industry.

“We are not going to be led by anyone in this make-believe world [that]APNU could do that. They could go into a make-believe world that they are addressing serious issues [but] we are addressing the serious issues,” he underscored.

Attorney-at-Law, foreigners, Guyana, ILO, Natural Resource Fund (NRF), Nigel Hughes, Oil-producing

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