Absence of united voice on oil and gas development puts Guyana at grave risk

Sep 10, 2022 News

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…Former Finance Minister urges more stakeholder involvement

Kaieteur News

By Zena Henry

When Trinidadian Energy Strategist, Anthony Paul gave his thoughts in a recent interview on the current state of the local oil and gas sector a few days ago on Kaieteur Radio, among the many things he warned about was that Guyana needs to speak in one voice to show harmony in the development of its oil resources, and most importantly, for the protection of revenue garnered for the lucrative commodity.

Paul submitted that, “There’s nothing foreign companies love better than to see us fight amongst ourselves…” He continued that, yes, persons will have their political party loyalty but said that there is ‘One Guyana’, and urged therefore, that politicians think about the areas of the sector where they can agree and focus on rather than focusing on the areas where they don’t agree. Ultimately, the aim for the Government and the Opposition, he noted, is to ensure that the country maximises its oil profits while maintaining the safety of its environment.

Former Finance Minister Winston Jordan not only endorsed the statement made by the Trinidadian oil specialist, he noted that it was the exact direction that the previous Government had taken that enabled it in just about four years to make significant steps toward enacting important oil related bills, policies, and sought loans to secure relevant services from international experts to serve the local energy sector. He said that genuine efforts were made to involve a wide cross-section of persons in the handling of the sector through their advice, concerns and other inputs.

Jordan, who served as the Finance Minister under the A partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Government identifies himself as an independent, holding no particular political party lines. For him, the failure of Politicians to sound off in one voice, shows how the country wants its oil sector to move forward, and leaves Guyana exposed to the pitfalls of the cut-throat oil industry.

He said that consensus in all the areas must be sought and we must maintain a course in that direction. “You have to have some kind of national approach to this sector that will transcend Governments,” Jordan insisted. He pointed too that failure to have agreements between political actors may see new Governments coming and making unnecessary changes within the sector that could have been avoided if all hands were on deck. “And that is how we will keep going,” Jordan charged. He said that if there is no change in Guyana’s posture regarding consensus in a number of oil related areas, then Guyana may very well fail in its attempts to draw the most from its oil endowments.

Jordan posited therefore, that “…because of the fact that we (last Government) were striving for national consensus, we engaged in long and wide consultations and so on.” He said that for example, the very Natural Resource Fund (NRF) law was the subject of wide spread public consultation that even members of the current government had pointed out that the widespread consultation was done adequately with a wide range of input. He added that even the agreement to put the Petroleum Commission Bill in place was done because of the number of concerns that were raised; and the support for the legislation to be activated in the earliest stage of the sector’s development. Even as all that work was done in relation to the Commission, Jordan said four years later it died in a dissolved Parliament and three years after that, the agency is still not activated. “There must be consensus in what we are doing,” Jordan reiterated. He said that the last government showed that it was prepared to engage stakeholders and to make as much information available for added support in growing and developing the industry.

Apart from consensus, Jordan has also called for the release of necessary oil and gas information to allow for better participation in the oil sector by citizens and other stakeholders. He told the publication that there seemed to be a lack of critical information within the public sphere as it appears too that the Government is hiding key documents and contracts from citizen. He said that under his stewardship he ensured agencies under his watch held Press Conferences, update citizens, and was accessible to the media. He said too that the Government and its agents also worked to make data as clear to citizens as possible. Jordan has thus urged the Government to follow suit and involve as many Guyanese in the oil oversight and management programme by providing them with data and educating them on the sector for increased consensus on the way forward with the oil bounty.

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