Latest update January 6th, 2025 4:00 AM
Natural Resources Ministry secures tenders for oil containment booms
Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman
Ahead of the 2020 oil and gas production in Guyana, the country has been attempting to ensure that the production does not have a negative impact on the marine sector.
One such effort was demonstrated last Tuesday at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board at the Ministry of Finance.
Here tenders were received by the Ministry of Natural Resources for the supply and delivery of oil containment booms.
These booms are actually made of rubber and are specially designed to contain oil that floats on the surface of water. They are used in most harbours, terminal and coastal areas. A feature of the oil containment boom allows it to shift in response to an emergency.
The main accessories usually include a power station, an inflator, a tractor, a reel frame and a container. These features allowed for these specially designed structures to have been used in response to many offshore oil response organisations also since they are durable, easy to maintain and stable under the tow.
Additionally, the three main components that make up the oil containment boom are the float, skirt, and ballast. The float rests at the water surface and is typically made of closed cell, polyethylene foam, which is highly buoyant and will not take on water.
The other component of the oil containment boom is the skirt, which is made of a heavy-duty, highly durable fabric extending below the float. The ballast is a weight, typically a chain at the bottom of the skirt, which keeps the boom vertical in the water.
The Natural Resources Ministry, headed by Minister Raphael Trotman, went ahead to invite bids for this major project in the latter part of November.
Tenders were received by six companies for the completion of the project on Tuesday. Companies that were tendered include J&R Establishment, Industrial Safety Supplies Incorporated, Total Medical Supplies Incorporated, JaParts, Kaizen Environmental Services of Trinidad and GuyCo Construction and General Services Incorporated.
Bids were as high as $91 million to ensure the supply and delivery of the oil containment booms.
The move made by the Ministry of Natural Resources follows a series of discussions that Ministry has had with the oil giant, ExxonMobil.
Exxon had disclosed that it is not responsible for an oil spill and made no provision for insurance in such a happening.
It has been exposed that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) which Exxon prepared and sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inadequate, as it outlines weak measures to deal with the eventuality of an oil spill, among other things.
Despite this fact, EPA still granted ExxonMobil the environmental permit it needed, to proceed with Liza Phase-1 development.
Minister Trotman has given all assurance, however, that the necessary provisions for such an event will be made, although Exxon Mobil had pointed out that such a disaster only has a 2% likeliness.
Hunt Oil was operating in Guyana’s hinterland back in 1970s was when it struck the officials that oil had initially gushed to the surface at about 400 barrels per day but then that petered out and there was nothing more. But there was always the belief that Guyana had oil, given that the black gold has been found in all the countries surrounding it.
After a few years of intensive exploration by ExxonMobil, they announced the discovery of a large deposit of oil, offshore.
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