T&T former Energy Minister commends Guyana for making ExxonMobil’s contract public

DPI, GUYANA, Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Energy Consultant and Former Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs, Trinidad and Tobago, Kevin Ramnarine today commended the Government of Guyana for releasing the production sharing agreement which it signed with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) and its partners.

Ramnarine, who is in Guyana for the inaugural Guyana Petroleum and Business Summit (GIPEX) 2018, while emphasising the importance of transparency, said that this move by the Guyana Government may inspire the Trinidadian government to release its production sharing contracts with oil companies.

Kevin Ramnarine Energy Consultant, Former Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs, Trinidad and Tobago.

“Historically in Trinidad, our production sharing contracts, our gas sales contracts have always been confidential,” the former Minister said.

The Government of Guyana had come under pressure by the Opposition and other members of civil society to make the contract public. On December 28, 2017, in keeping with its promise, the contract was released.

The Energy Consultant said the magnitude of oil production in Guyana will fundamentally transform the country, pointing to the disclosure by ExxonMobil earlier today at the summit that the Liza Two well, when it is sanctioned, will produce some 220 thousand barrels of oil per day, in addition to the 120 thousand barrels expected to be produced from the Liza One.

“You looking at 340 thousand barrels of oil per day by the year 2022, I like to put things in context because it is good to have a comparator. Now Trinidad’s highest ever oil production was 229,500 barrels in the year 1978, so I keep saying that the scale of what is happening here is incredible,” Ramnarine emphasised.

The collaboration between the two countries, in the area of academics specifically between the University of Guyana (UG) and the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus, and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) was lauded by the former TT Energy Minister.

Making a comparison to the experiences of Trinidad and Tobago in the oil and gas sector, Ramnarine said Guyana is on the right path, pointing to the steps being taken to implement the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) from the onset.

“I think we started that too late, we should have started a lot earlier so it’s good to know Guyana is starting it from day one. We started the fund in 1999 and we now have $US5.2B in it. So, I think with the benefit of hindsight we should have started that decades before,” he said.

He noted that the twin-island had invested heavily in training in the Petroleum sector, to the extent where it is now a net exporter of professionals in the field, a step already being taken by Guyana.

Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman has stressed that Government will over the years be investing heavily in the University of Guyana for technical training as the country prepares for the sector.

The Ministry will also be looking at enhancing the courses offered by the Technical Institutes and is in receipt of proposals from international educational centres to collaborate with local institutions.

The former Minister also acknowledged the efforts of the Government in putting the necessary legislative and other mechanisms in place before 2020.

Infrastructure is an important aspect during the preparatory stages and according to Ramnarine, “I know that there is a long list of projects that he [Minister of Public Infrastructure] has in his PowerPoint presentations of roads and so on that would be widened and highways that will be built.”

Ramnarine, in January 2016, delivered a public Lecture on Oil and Gas at the Pegasus Hotel, Georgetown, which was the first in a series sponsored by the Guyana Oil and Gas Association (GOGA).

The Energy Consultant served as Minister in Trinidad and Tobago from June 2011 to September 2015. The former minister is credited with opening up the twin-island state for deepwater exploration and overseeing the first energy-related initial public offering (IPO) which became the largest IPO in Trinidad’s history among other achievements.

 

By: Stacy Carmichael

 

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