Govt. engages T&T petroleum Expert to help

Aug 13, 2020 News

Energy Strategist, Anthony Paul

President Irfaan Ali has contacted Trinidadian energy strategist, Anthony Paul, to help Guyana develop its petroleum sector.
The President informed Kaieteur News of these developments during a recent call.
Subsequently, contact was made with Paul who confirmed that discussions were had on a variety of issues, and that he is happy to help. Paul is currently an advisor to the Government of Mozambique.
Paul worked with Guyana previously, when he created two earlier drafts of Guyana’s local content policy.
Paul had included mechanisms to avoid shackling Guyana to confidentiality provisions, which would have provided for transparent reporting by oil companies on their local content commitments.
However, the former APNU+AFC government ignored the policy, replacing Paul with Dr. Michael Warner – a UK consultant affiliated with ExxonMobil who later removed Paul’s safeguards.
While Guyana ignored his advice, Paul’s work in Ghana saw that African nation’s government reap the success of a robust local content policy with Ghanaians representing 86 percent of the oil and gas workforce.
The Trinidadian also notably was hired by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to analyse Guyana’s oil industry in 2016.
In addition to pointing out loopholes to plug and urgent legislative updates to be made, Paul noted the need for a National Upstream Oil and Gas Policy, a document to guide the development of Guyana’s petroleum legislation and regulatory framework.
Energy Lawyer, J. Jay Park held the same view, and had opined that the government should focus on what it wants to achieve by way of the policy. Paul’s advice was not heeded.
Paul has about four decades of experience in extractive sectors. He has worked with oil major, BP, and several governments.
Paul formerly served as an advisor of Chatham House, and is a governing board member of the Natural Resource Governance Institute.

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