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Emerging Oil and Gas Sector…Guyana has to develop capacity to support the Industry – T&T’s Former Energy Minister
Former Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs, Kevin Ramnarine, said yesterday, that Guyana’s emerging Oil and Gas Industry needs the support of all stakeholders to ensure that it starts on the right foot.
Former Trinidad and Tobago Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs, Kevin Ramnarine.
Ramnarine was at the time preparing to give a lecture at the Le Meridian Pegasus Hotel, Kingston, Georgetown, at an Oil and Gas Seminar.
“I am of the view that Guyana has to develop the capacity to support this industry. This industry needs everything.
In the early days of Trinidad and Tobago for example, Trinidadians would rent cars and houses to oil companies. Now we’ve come a long way where we provide the essential services for drilling and so on.”
He added that the cementing of wells is being done by Trinidadian Companies as opposed to the importation of services to the twin-island republic. Machine shops, he added, are also now actively involved.
“The country also provides the highest to the lowest in terms of skill set and I think that is where Guyana has to get to,” Ramnarine said.
Private Sector’s role
The former Minister, now Lecturer at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business in Trinidad, noted the importance of the Private Sector role in the emerging industry.
“The (Private Sector) has to step up to the plate and if they don’t do that, they will be left behind. The government can’t do it all and the government’s role is to facilitate, not to frustrate,”
“You want the country to develop the services that the sector needs and (they) aren’t going to develop all the services immediately, but you know there has to be a starting point.”
Recent discovery
Meanwhile, Guyana continues to advance in the world of Oil and Gas. ExxonMobil yesterday announced “positive results” from its Payara-1 well offshore Guyana. Payara is ExxonMobil’s second oil discovery on the Stabroek Block and was drilled in a new reservoir.
The Payara-1 well targeted similar aged reservoirs that were proven successful at the company’s Liza discovery, says the US-owned Exxon-Mobil.
“This important discovery further establishes the area as a significant exploration province,” said Steve Greenlee, president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company.
“We look forward to working with the government and our co-venturers to continue evaluating broader exploration potential on the block and the greater Liza area.”
According to the Texas-based company, the well was drilled by ExxonMobil affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, and encountered more than 95 feet (29 meters) of “high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs. It was safely drilled to 18,080 feet (5,512 meters) in 6,660 feet (2,030 meters) of water. The Payara field discovery is about 10 miles (16 km) northwest of the 2015 Liza discovery.”
In addition to the Payara discovery, appraisal drilling at Liza-3 has identified an additional high quality, deeper reservoir directly below the Liza field, which is estimated to contain between 100-150 million oil equivalent barrels. This additional resource is currently being evaluated for development in conjunction with the world-class Liza discovery.
Ramnarine was asked about his thoughts on this recent development to which he responded: “What we could be looking at here is the possibility of the Guyana/Suriname basin being the new North Sea.
“So that, to me, is huge. It becomes very difficult to wrap your mind around the enormity of what is happening here,”
The former Minister was asked to expound on what this development means to the “man in the street”.
“It means that the country is going to become wealthier in a short space of time; it means that the economy can be doubled within the next five years of Liza’s production and the economy could probably quadruple after the next ten years. The standard of living is going to improve.”
Guyana received news of its first major oil find in May 2015 from the Exxon-Mobil.
The discovery is being viewed as a major game-changer for Guyana and one that will change the country’s fortunes.
Training, legislations and consultations have been ongoing to ready Guyana for oil production with approval already granted to build an on-shore facility.
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