Oil and Gas should be governed by transparency and accountability – Prime Minister Nagamootoo

GEORGETOWN, Monday, March 27, 2017 – Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, today, said Guyana’s emerging oil and gas sector should be governed by transparency and accountability.

Prime Minister Nagamootoo explained that when he was a member of the previous government, “we felt that we had come close to having disclosures that we were richly endowed with oil but we did not open the doors to companies that want to take us forward.”

The Prime Minister also applauded Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman for taking the initiative when he visited Mexico in 2015 to start the conversation about open data and open information on oil and gas potential and at the same time to seek out allies who would help Guyana to develop the legal frame work required.

“After the recent launch of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Multi-Stakeholder Group, we felt that we needed not only to ensure that we have an environmental impact assessment done but the important thing for us was that our oil and gas industry should be characterised by transparency and by accountability”, Prime Minister Nagamootoo explained.

The Prime Minister noted that “our government endorses fully, that a portion of the proceeds from oil and gas should go towards; one the future of the country to be invested in the development of strategically necessary resources, infrastructure, and in the education and health of our people and not just be accessed willy nilly as opportunities present themselves by Governments.”

In my view, Prime Minister Nagamootoo noted, oil and gas is just as important as any other sector of the economy, “so we have to look at how we can develop an integrated economy.”

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, made this statement as he addressed the inaugural Oil and Gas Conference and Exposition 2017 at the Georgetown Marriott Hotel. He alluded to the fact that he recently visited the giant oil rig, Stena Carron, which is doing exploratory drilling operations on the Snoek Well, a new reservoir within the Stabroek Block 130 miles off the Atlantic sea-coast of Guyana.

The Oil and Gas Conference and Exposition will continue tomorrow, March 28.