Bureau of Standards to monitor oil measurements

Dec 19, 2019 News

…under guidance of 38-year-old law

The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) will be the main agency tasked with ensuring the accurate measurement of Guyana’s oil from the Stabroek Block. It will be tasked with handling, in particular, issues related to calibration and instrumentation.
But GNBS is without any updated laws or guidelines that specifically address measurement issues for the petroleum sector. In fact, the Weights and Measures Act which it uses is 38 years old. This legislation speaks nothing of how Guyana should go about monitoring measurements of oil and gas.
In fact, Guyana is without any piece of legislation or regulation for such. In other countries such as Uganda, Norway, Trinidad and Tobago, and the USA, there are strict laws, regulations and guidelines for offshore oil metering which, for example, outline penalties for bypassing metering systems, and outline how investigations would be carried out for any irregularities detected.
In the meantime, Kaieteur News understands that the Energy Department is working with this agency to ensure it secures the requisite technical assistance for training on oversight of the oil measurement process, effective calibration and testing functions.
According to Energy Department Director, Dr. Mark Bynoe, GNBS is receiving assistance from the American Petroleum Institute (API).
Headquartered in Washington D.C, API is said to be a world-renowned organization on such issues, and is the largest trade association for the oil and gas industry in the USA. It claims to represent around 400 corporations engaged in oil production, extraction (including hydro-fracking), distribution, and other aspects of the industry.
Dr. Bynoe had said, too, that it is the desire of the government to pursue a third party verifier to preserve the integrity of the systems being used as well as to reduce potential value leakage. Dr. Bynoe added that this watchdog would be crucial in the event there is an issue whether with quality or quantity of the oil, Guyana would have its own evidence to challenge the operators.

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