Latest update January 17th, 2025 6:30 AM
Jagdeo says… India to help boost Guyana’s oil and gas regulatory capabilities
Kaieteur News – India will soon help Guyana to boost its oil and gas capabilities as well as collaborate on areas that go beyond the energy sector, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo revealed on Friday during a press conference held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Lilendaal.
Jagdeo just returned from a five-day official visit to India, at the invitation of that country’s Vice President. He was accompanied by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh.
Kaieteur News had reported that, during an interview with WION’s (World Is One News) Diplomatic Correspondent Sidhant Sibal in India – Jagdeo disclosed that Guyana and India will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation in the energy sector beyond crude oil exports.
Jagdeo had told Sibal, “So we’re expecting shortly to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that would go beyond just the export of crude, but we’ll look at the energy sector and its development in its totality.”
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo at his press conference on Friday
He had explained that Guyana is now trying to build the architecture for a broader look at the energy sector and enhance cooperation between Guyana and India.
“And we are also looking to learn quite a bit from India…So that is why India’s assistance and its great technical skills, you have a lot of smart people here who can help us in defining the growth of the industry, but not just on oil, on the gas sector as we move to develop a gas policy and to start utilizing the gas resources and then in terms of environmental management, building capacity across the country,” Jagdeo said.
During his Friday press conference, the Vice President expounded on some areas of cooperation that will come from the MOU that will be signed between Guyana and India.
“It has to deal with strengthening our regulatory capacity, and sharing expertise in building capacity in the staff of the Ministry of Natural Resources,” Jagdeo, a former President told reporters.
Jagdeo said that India has enormous capacity in many areas and Guyana is aiming to benefit from the strengthening of the regulatory regime for the oil and gas sector as well as building the capacity of the ministry which governs the country’s natural resources.
“It (the MOU) speaks about collaboration in the future for natural gas, so we are as you know, we are embarked on the gas to energy project that will utilise some of the natural gas that is produced or discovered offshore,” Jagdeo said.
He disclosed that while the Government is now pushing Exxon to complete the gas utilisation plan, “we hope this will be completed very soon and we are working on our own gas strategy, we are going to get some of the consultants from India and other places to work with us on having a national gas strategy which will determine what we do with the gas that has been found offshore so far.”
According to the Vice President, the MOU will also deal with potential areas of bilateral cooperation in exploration and developing Guyana’s natural resources with India.
“So the MOU will deal with deal with a number of issues, the MOU will deal with exploring the possibility of trading in crude oil, that is sale of crude oil, but we agreed with the minister that this has to be beneficial to both country and it has to follow market conditions,” Jagdeo said.
He highlighted that there is no agreement to sell any oil to India at this point in time, adding that any such agreement in the future will have to be competitive and have to benefit both countries.
The Vice President explained that the Government is only discussing with India a framework agreement that will be signed.
“The framework agreement will say we will corporate in all of these areas but when you come to discussing specific initiatives for example if they want to buy crude then they will make a specific offer and we will then assess that offer on its merit in accordance to the principle that I outlined before and similarly if they want to engage in a bilateral discussion on exploration and development a specific arrangement will be made,” he explained.
Importantly, Jagdeo noted that there are a few other areas that will be in the MOU and added that once signed, it might be made public.
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