GUYANA HAS HIGH GRADE CRUDE OIL

Feb 27, 2011 News

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From Ralph Seeram

As I am writing this article the world price of oil has jumped to US$100per barrel, the highest price in two years. Oil has increased by 14 percent in the past week. No doubt this is due to the present wave of protests in the Arab and other oil producing countries. These increases have a serious impact on the economies of oil dependent countries like Guyana.
Last weekend the Guyanese American Cultural Association of Central Florida celebrated Guyana’s 41st anniversary as a Republic with a Ball at the prestigious Ballroom at Church Street Station in Orlando, Florida.
The association had as its guest speaker, international renowned energy expert, Guyana-born Dr. Vincent Adams. According to the Association Journal biography, Dr Adams is a member of the Senior Executive Services corps of the United States Government. SES is the highest level of career professionals in the Unites States Government.
Dr Adams has been appointed Site Manager for the clean up of one of U.S. largest nuclear weapons complex. The site which has a budget of US$13 billion also has a security mission of developing next generation uranium enrichment technologies as well as converting the site to an industrial complex.
This outstanding Guyanese is a consultant to the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency; Chairman of the second International Conference on Land Remediation held in Kazakhstan attended by over fifty countries, Chairman of the Fifth International Conference on the Recycle of Radio Active Materials held in Germany; and Chairman of the Southern Section of the Air and Waste Management Association the pre-eminent environmental engineering professional organisation with over 9,000 members in 65 countries.
Dr Adams, who holds a BS, two MS and a PhD in multiple engineering disciplines, has made many contributions to science and engineering including developing pioneering engineering technologies to more efficiently extract oil from the earth, transformation nuclear weapon technologies into applications for medicines, pollution prevention and alternative energy.
Are we not proud of this outstanding Guyanese who had his humble beginnings from Christianburg, Demerara River?
I went at length to emphasise Dr Adams credentials because you will be shocked at how he was treated by some petty bureaucrats in Guyana. Prior to joining the U S Government, Dr. Adams was in the private oil industry engaged in oil exploration.
Dr Adams disclosed that Guyana had one of the highest grades of crude oil. He explained that crude oil is normally black but the crude oil found in Guyana was of a lighter colour. Where is this oil? In the Takutu Basin. He explained that the oil was found in the seventies.
There were two wells that were producing about 400 barrels per day. It is said that because of a dispute about revenue sharing between the oil company and the Burnham Government the well was capped. He said he urged the present Government on many occasions to revisit the Takutu Basin rather than putting emphasis on off shore drilling, which he stressed is not a sure thing.
He said he was gratified that recently the Government has been looking at the Takutu Basin again. Guyana, he said, has all the resources to be self sufficient in energy and it’s a shame that the country has not achieved this position yet.
He pointed to neighbouring Brazil, who despite of producing enough oil for its energy needs, and exports, is deriving most of its energy need from alternative energy sources such as hydropower and bio fuels.
He predicted that Brazil will soon surpass the United Kingdom as an economic power and will be one of the major economic powers of the world. Besides it natural resources Brazil’s self sufficiency in energy is a key to its success. He revealed that the Brazilians have on several occasions requested his services.
Touching on Petro Caribe, Dr. Adams said that this may be a short term benefit for participating countries, but dangerous in the long term, due to the fact that these are loans, not gifts, they have to be repaid regardless of how low the interest rate is.
If Venezuela wanted to help countries participating in Petro Caribe, a better alternative would have been to help those countries develop alternative energy thus weaning them of oil dependence.
He often visits Guyana. He is Chairman of the Linden Fund which helps the Linden Community through programmes such as job creation, education, health care and other social works. He often offers his services and expertise free of charge to the Guyana Government.
It was on one of these visits that after consultation with Prime Minister Sam Hinds he went to a Government agency to look over some data on oil exploration. After being given the “run around” by some petty bureaucrat (my words) the information was finally available.
Now brace yourself for this; this idiot told Dr Adams that he had to pay for a photocopy of the documents. Yes here we have a world renowned energy expert offering his services free to the Guyana Government, and this fool of a Government official is asking this gentleman to pay for copies of oil exploration data.
It was just revealed that Guyana is paying an expert in the field of climate change some US$14,000 per month, but here we cannot give copies to someone who is offering for FREE his expertise on energy. Talk about priorities.
There are so many talented Guyanese in the Diaspora willing to share their knowledge for free because of their loyalty to Guyana. The question is whether petty officials who suffer from inferiority complex are willing to exploit their services.

Ralph Seeram can be reached at e-mail: ralph365@hotmail.com

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