GEA moving to strengthen capacity to respond to oil spills

Jul 22, 2022 News

– agency among key players in National Oil Spill Contingency Plan

Kaieteur News – In order to properly execute its responsibilities as required under the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP), the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) is looking to strengthen its capacity.

(Foursquare)

As such the Agency has invited, by way of advertisement, eligible individual consultants, having the technical competence, relevant resources, qualifications and experience similar to the NOSCP to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) and financial proposal.

The NOSCP became operational in August 2020, after four years of being constantly amended as well as facing periods of languishing in a draft stage.

Other key stakeholders are: the Maritime Administrative Department (MARAD), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) – while the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) is the custodian of the plan.

Under the NOSCP, the GEA has been identified as the lead response Agency for Tier 2, that is, spills requiring the deployment of national resources and Tier 3, that is, spills requiring the deployment of national, regional and international resource, oil and petroleum product spills on land.

To effectively execute these functions under the NOSCP, the GEA will be required to manage the clean-up of Tier 2 and Tier 3 spills within an Incident Command Systems structure.

As such, the Agency is seeking to hire an Individual Consultant to build the capacity in managing its response to land-based oil spills and monitor the Agency’s deliverables under the NOSCP.

Moreover, in response to questions from this publication, GEA’s Head of Legal and Licencing Division, Thandiwe Benn, elucidated that the purpose of the NOSCP is to define responsibilities for the management of and operational response to the spillage of oil and petroleum products into the environment.

According to her, the plan outlines the framework within which resources will be coordinated and deployed in Guyana for the purpose of dealing with pollution of the land and marine environment from spills of oil and petroleum products.

Benn highlighted too that “The spill management efforts are done in conjunction with the other Agencies so assigned in the NOSCP under the guidance of the CDC, the Incident Commander and Competent National Authority.”

According to the NOSCP document, in light of Guyana developing its oil and gas resources and cognisant of the risks associated with the infrastructure that is built to support these industries, there is a need to implement measures that can aid in the prevention and if unavoidable, prompt and effective action to minimise the damage which may result from a major oil spill incident.

The document noted too that the Government has assigned the responsibility for the preventing, preparing and combating of all oil and noxious chemical spills, within the territory of Guyana and its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to the Director General of CDC, named as the Competent National Authority (CNA) with the Director Maritime Safety of MARAD as Deputy for Maritime, and the Executive Director of GEA for land spills.

Importantly, the Coast Guard and the GEA are named as the On-Scene Commanders for maritime and land respectively.

The agencies, together with the National Oil Spill Committee, will be responsible for the development, updating and enforcement of the NOCSP which will provide for coordinated response and the necessary training for such response. Notably, the agencies will also approve the necessary staff to fill the Incident Command System which will be responsible for the planning for oil spill response and the surveillance required of the country’s land and maritime zones for the timely detection of oil and other related emergencies.