GGMC begins restructuring to handle oil and gas

Nov 05, 2019 News

The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) is being restructured to deal with the oil and gas industry.

The meeting yesterday between Minister Raphael Trotman (seated at the head of the table) and the stakeholders.

Yesterday, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, met with the consultancy team for the restructuring of the commission.
The consultancy team is expected to thoroughly review the GGMC’s operating procedures and structure.
According to the ministry, reviewing the commission’s operating procedures, structure and functions is being done to ensure that the government agency is prepared and in line with international standards, as Guyana heads into a new era of an oil and gas-based economy.
Guyana is expected to start as early as next month to produce oil in a commercial quantity.
The oil offshore is the light crude that is in high demand, setting the stage for huge profits for ExxonMobil and its partners.
With the opening of new areas for exploration and with Tullow recently announcing a find of its own in its offshore concessions, the pressure has been on for GGMC to adapt itself urgently.
Yesterday, a government release said that Jamaica-based AZ Consultancy Firm, which was retained by the GGMC earlier in the year for the exercise, met at the commission’s Brickdam office, to provide Trotman with an update and work plan.
“A general review of our operating procedures, our functions, our structure (is necessary) with the changing sector that we will be going into, I suppose the next decade the commission (GGMC) has to do some changing, we have to reorganise ourselves and we have to make sure that we become efficient with resources that are available to us,” stated GGMC Commissioner, Newell Dennison.
According to Trotman, the GGMC has come under the spotlight in recent times.
The minister described the management and staff of the agency as hardworking.
However, he noted that “there are always areas in which one could improve.”
“Today, they are to give a preliminary report of where things are. I know this agency has come in for quite a bit of scrutiny. I believe that the management and staff of the GGMC are hardworking, wanting to do their best for the country, not pretending that they know everything and getting everything right, and so, we believe that this consultancy will help us to move forward,” Minister Trotman noted.
The first official report should be compiled and presented by December 31, 2019.
GGMC is responsible for providing effective stewardship of the country’s mineral resources by ensuring increased opportunities for development – exploration, documentation and extraction – and to promote and support increased investment in the mining and mining related sectors.
The GGMC was created in 1979 from the Department of Geological Surveys and Mines which itself was the successor to the Geological Survey of British Guiana.
Currently, GGMC is divided into a number of sections: Geological Services, Mines, Environment, Petroleum and Land Management.

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