Page 4 - LatAmOil Week 41 2019

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil
Transparency could help companies based in Trinidad and Tobago win contracts offshore Guyana (Image: CGX Energy)
Keeping up with Guyana
A geophysicist warns that Trinidad and Tobago may not be able to reap much benefit from exploration and development work offshore Guyana
WHAT:
A Ramps Logistics representative says Trinidad and Tobago must promote transparency and offer additional incentives to investors.
WHY:
Without such action, he says, the Caribbean state may have difficulty ben- efitting from the flow of investment into Guyana.
WHAT NEXT:
Tullow Oil is reportedly moving its onshore support operations to Guyana.
A representative of Ramps Logistics, a company based in Trinidad and Tobago that provides logistical services across Latin America and the Caribbean, has urged his home country’s gov- ernment to embark upon a regulatory reform programme.
Javed Razack, a geophysicist with Ramps Logistics, said last week that reforms would help Trinidad and Tobago benefit from investment in new oil and gas projects.
Currently, he said, potential investors are weighed down by an excessively heavy bureau- cratic burden.
“We need to redesign the contractual frame- work [and] the fiscal regime, as well as improve the ease of doing business with the regulatory institutions of the country, [such as] the Envi- ronmental Management Authority, (EMA), Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Energy,” Razack said. He was speaking during a seminar hosted by the Confederation of Regional Busi- ness Chambers (CRBC).
Compare and contrast
If the country does not take these steps, he asserted, it may fail to attract a share of the investment now flowing into the nearby fron- tier oil and gas basin located offshore Guyana.
“Guyana is developing in a huge way and when you look at Trinidad with poor incentives, lack of transparency [and] lack of regulations, it is easy to see why a large multinational will go to Guyana or Suriname to invest rather than to invest in Trinidad,” he commented.
Razack went further, expressing regret that the government had not included any specific tax breaks or incentives for local companies involved in the exploration and development of Guyanese fields. This is an oversight, given the stakes involved, he argued.
“When Guyana begins to produce oil from
2020, the Guyanese government’s share of profit
in Guyana will be $300mn,” he said. “The cur-
rent revenue for the year is about $1bn, which is
a 30% increase in revenue. 
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 40 10•October•2019