Opposition has no experts in oil and gas sector — Conference Organisers

Feb 26, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – If opposition can prove that they have an expert in any area that relates to Guyana’s emerging oil and gas sector, only then, will one of them be granted the opportunity to become a panelist at Guyana’s next energy conference and business conference.

Alex Graham speaking at one of the press conferences during the recently concluded Guyana Energy conference.

This is according Alex Graham, Communications Director of the International Energy Conference and Expo Guyana 2022 (IECE).
Graham said this while speaking at a press conference held on Thursday at the Marriott Hotel, located in Kingston Guyana. The press conference was centered around plans for next year’s energy conference scheduled to commence on February, 14 and end on the 17 of that same month.
Reporters attending the press conference questioned the reasons why the organizers of the event did not invite a representative/s from the political opposition, a Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), such as a point person or a shadow minister of the oil and gas sector, to be one of the panelists or speakers at the recently concluded Guyana Energy Conference, 2022.
Graham responded that his team was not responsible for appointing persons to be part of the panel, but related that the move was not a political one. According to the Communications Director, the speakers at the event were selected based on certain criteria and one of them was that the speaker must be a specialist in a particular area of the sector.
“You are not selected to be a panelist because you are a member of the opposition or a parliamentarian. You are selected because you are a specialist in a particular area,” Graham told the media.
He continued, that all of the panelist who were at the event, were there because of a “specialism” in a particular area (relating to the oil and gas sector).
“We were not part of the team that selected anyone on the panel but I am confident that they did choose people with certain expertise; you either have to have certain expertise, or you either have to be working in the area right now or you have to have to have a track record in the area. Those are the criteria for selecting a panelist not politics”, said Graham.
When asked, whether being a point person for opposition in the oil and sector, such as David Patterson, could make them eligible for selection, Graham’s response was, “point person in the opposition does not make you a specialist. And if you can prove to me that he is an expert in any of the areas that were discussed (at the conference) then I will let the people know that we have someone here who can speak on this”.
Patterson has in the past, criticized government’s general approach to the oil and gas sector with many deals made, shrouded in secrecy and has also questioned the price tag attached to the cost of the gas to shore project and its viability. Questions were also raised about the impact it can have on the environment.

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