Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 33 2021

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Ali outlines Guyana’s plans to establish Petroleum Commission by year-end
IRFAAN Ali, the president of Guyana, said last week that his administration intended to estab- lish a new government agency to oversee the country’s fledgling oil industry before the end of the year.
In a public address, Ali indicated that the agency would be known as the Petroleum Com- mission. The new body will be responsible for oversight of oil and gas projects, as well as reve- nue from hydrocarbon sales, he said. It will also have enough autonomy to ensure that the sector is insulated from “undue political interference” by the government and not subject to the full control of a cabinet minister, he stated.
The new arrangement will allow Guyana to develop and manage its oil and gas reserves in a transparent and orderly manner, he added.
When oil was first discovered offshore Guy- ana in 2015, the hydrocarbon sector was subject to oversight by a cabinet ministry, the Depart- ment of Energy. The department still held this position in December 2019, when Liza-1, a sec- tion of the Stabroek block operated by Exxon- Mobil (US), came on stream. But in late 2020, Ali’s administration shuttered the Department of Energy and assigned responsibility for the industry to Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and to the Ministry of Natural Resources, which is led by Vickram Bharrat.
The Petroleum Commission is now slated to assume these functions. One of the new agency’s first tasks will be to assume control of bidding for onshore and offshore acreage by local and foreign companies. Officials in Georgetown told Argus Media earlier this year that the govern- ment was moving away from its previous prac- tice of direct bilateral negotiations with potential
investors and aimed to carry out its first compet- itive licensing round in 2022.
The establishment of the commission is not the only policy change in the pipeline. Ali said in his address last week that his administration hoped to create a natural resource fund to man- age earnings from oil exports. The government intends to introduce legislation to this effect in December 2021, he stated.
Currently, Guyana’s oil earnings are being held in a special account at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (Presumably, the natural resources fund mentioned by the pres- ident would replace this arrangement.) To date, Georgetown has deposited about $436mn in export revenues into this account, which serves as a de facto sovereign wealth fund, but it has not withdrawn any of the money. It cannot do so without parliament’s approval, Ali said during his speech. ™
Guyanese President Irfaan Ali (Photo: DPI.gov.gy)
Cabinet minister says Guyana is drawing up master plan for gas
GUYANA’S Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat has said that the government is drawing up a master plan to direct the delivery of associated gas from Liza, one of the oil-bear- ing sections of the offshore Stabroek block, to the domestic market.
In an address to Parliament on August 15,
Bharrat reported that Georgetown was prepar- ing a Gas Utilisation Master Plan (GUMP) in line with amendments to the Petroleum Explo- ration and Production Legislation of 1986. The plan will help the government “review and determine the most appropriate use of surplus gas” from the Liza-1 and Liza-2 fields, he said-.
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