Govt working to ensure petroleum industry properly managed

DPI, Guyana, Friday, November 1, 2019

“We will make sure we have a first-class petroleum industry that is efficiently and honestly administered.”

His Excellency, President David Granger, stated this on Friday during an interview on Kaieteur Radio. The Head of State explained that with the establishment of the Department of Energy on August 1, 2018, the government has embarked on building the human capacity needed to satisfy the needs of the industry.

“We have to build human capacity, and that is responsible for the focus I have on education, particularly science and technology,” the president said.

Over the past few months, the Head of State has made donations to several schools to aid in the expansion and development of its science and technology programmes.

“In order to make that industry work, we need technically and scientifically qualified people… in years to come Guyana will be doing much better.”

President Granger also noted that keen attention is being paid to the lessons from other oil-producing nations. He highlighted that measures are being implemented to ensure that benefits from the industry are properly managed and pointed to the Sovereign Wealth Fund as an example.

“We will ensure that the policy that we have outlined in the Decade of Development puts the revenues from the petroleum sector in certain directions.”

The president explained that one of these will be the education sector and emphasised that it is important that training is being provided in the sector.