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Guyana must guard against over-reliance on oil companies’ data
…strengthen capabilities for independent assessments – Energy Expert
Trinidadian Energy Strategist, Anthony Paul
Kaieteur News
By Kiana Wilburg
Trinidadian Energy Strategist, Anthony Paul believes it would be in the nation’s best interests to build up its capabilities in the petroleum sector for independent assessments and reviews so that it can guard against over-reliance on oil companies’ data and their interpretation of same.
During an interview on Kaieteur Radio’s Programme, Guyana’s Oil and You, Paul said it is critical that Guyana arms itself with experts who can provide independent analysis of data provided by ExxonMobil affiliates and any other oil company operating offshore. He said the country must have the capabilities to be able to properly interrogate what is presented by companies, adding that such skill sets would be beneficial when the country is ready to craft an oil and gas master plan later on.
Paul was keen to note as well that independent assessments are crucial for Guyanese to be able to ascertain if they are being presented with the best field development plans for the extraction and production of its hydrocarbon resources.
The Trinidadian expert said, “It is crucial that Guyana is able to assess what’s happening offshore. You can’t regulate something as technically complex as this and something which has so many opportunities for value loss, for value slippage without having the ability to oversee, understand and assess. One of the primary ways of doing that is making sure as much work as possible is being done in country rather than overseas.”
Paul said Guyanese ought to question where Exxon has its geologists, its geophysicists, its reservoir engineers and other top-notch experts and whether locals are training side by side with them.
“To what extent is there transference of skills and technology and is Guyana demanding or asking for this? And how much of all this is happening outside of the country? It is important to ask because at the end of the day, you are paying for it. You must also ask what is the plan for Guyana in this regard and who is thinking of all this? Are the right specialists being sent for training? You have to set yourself up to capture as much benefit as possible and to ensure you are at every turn,” Paul explained.
In referencing how his home country was able to build capacity, he recalled that Trinidad, some years ago, was able to insert a provision into its production sharing agreements which said that all costs incurred overseas are limited to 10 percent recovery. If the oil companies were desirous of doing full recovery then it meant transferring many of their services to Trinidad which in turn resulted in more training for locals.
“Once we did that, the oil companies brought a team down with geoscientists and they collaborated with us. We were able to build a Petroleum Geoscience programme at the University that became a world-class programme. This was possible because we got the industry to help design the content, they brought in experienced industry practitioners to teach some of the classes and many students were given job training opportunities right after,” expressed Paul.
He said that today, Trinidad boasts of creating a line of world-class geoscientists that are already doing fantastic work in many companies all parts of the world. By building capacity, Paul reasoned that Governments have access to a better quality of people to work with the overseas companies.
Paul said this is the kind of approach Guyana can take while adding that it can even seek to build and partner with Trinidad on this front.
In conclusion, Paul firmly asserted that Guyana can and should act quickly to arm itself with the experts it needs in its corner to do independent assessments. This he reiterated, is key to mitigating value loss which has been a key objective of the PPP/C Administration in managing the oil sector.
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