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Guyanese Professionals must drive local Oil and gas debate
…but govt., operators should provide all available information—Anthony Paul
By Gary Eleazar
Professional organizations such as the Institute of Professional Chartered Accountants, and the Guyana Bar Association needs to take a proactive approach to shape the national conversation with regards Guyana’s destiny in the context of an oil and gas economy.
Local Content Expert, Anthony Paul
This is according to Local Content expert, Dr. Anthony Paul, who shared that this “national conversation is lacking.”
He was adamant the Guyanese populace cannot wait on Government to come up with transformational plans.
Institutions such as the University of Guyana can play a key role in providing the necessary information needed in the public domain for long term strategic planning.
He noted, too, that there should be a greater demand on the part of the citizenry for access to the available information such as in the Field Development Plans.
These types of information, he said, would be critical for the Guyanese populace which would then be in a better position to make economic decisions based on what is feasible.
He used, as example, the fact that just the first three oil field developments (Liza I & II and Payara) will all require a number of supporting vessels.
Dr. Paul noted that there isn’t any visible conversation in the public domain about Guyanese ownership of more vessels that provide logistic support to the offshore operations and pointed to opportunities existing such as transportation and other services.
According to Paul, it is the citizenry that should be leading the process in terms of coming up with national long term strategies and that these conversations should or could be led by the ICA.
He told this publication that already Guyana is projected to be spending some US$10B for the development of just the first two fields and noted that these represent not just short term spending but also long term commitments.
He used as an example, the need for long term contracts for the supply vessels and suggested that with such contracts in hands Guyanese companies can in fact tap into the expenditure used for developing the field.
This, he said, would mean more or the investment capital being pumped into the development being retained in country versus the overseas suppliers that currently services the industry.
The local content expert said that the vast plethora of information already in the public space needs to be consolidated and analysed by the local professionals such as those in the accounting, economic and legal fraternity in order to Guyanese and the Guyanese private sector with the required information in relation investment possibilities.
He said that it is the access to and proper analyzing of the data available on the industry that will drive long term decisions and strategies that can be implemented both in the private and public spheres in order to meet the long term development goals.
Dr. Paul used the occasion to reiterate, however, that “much like the Guyanese coat of arms which speaks to one people, one nation with one destiny, Guyanese must decide firstly what that destiny is, and how to get there.”
According to Paul, it is imperative that the domestic professional community lead that conversation that is critical to the future development of the country and its success as an oil and gas producing nation.
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