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Recommendations on new draft PSA will be addressed publicly – President Ali
Kaieteur News – President Irfaan Ali has assured that comments and concerns shared with the Ministry of Natural Resources pertaining to the recently released draft Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) to govern future oil blocks will be addressed before the contracts are finalized.
President Irfaan Ali
On the sidelines of an event at Leonora, West Coast Demerara (WCD) on Friday the Head of State was asked whether a press conference will be held to discuss some of the comments received to which he responded, “Definitely. When they collate all the comments and so… definitely. I’m sure that you will be updated on some of the issues that were raised and how we are addressing it. Like we did in the LCDS (Low Carbon Development Strategy), we addressed all the issues that were raised. Even if there are issues that we feel differently about we say that.”
The 14-day public consultation period in which citizens were granted an opportunity to offer their comments on the Shallow and Deepwater Model Agreements had no mechanisms in place for concerns or comments to be publicly ventilated. The comments were required to be addressed to the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat.
Given the critical nature of the documents, environmental advocate, Simone Mangal-Joly had told Minister Bharrat that there are certain key elements that would render the 14-day process more effective.
For one, she recommended that government should outline a clear procedure for how feedback will be received and made transparently available for all to see; and outline the mechanism that will be used to report on how public feedback was addressed in the development of the final model agreement.
According to her, “The current 14-day notice and comments period does not meet requirements for an effective public consultation process. The Government may wish to…identify the mechanism for receiving public feedback, making comments publicly available, and reporting on how these comments were addressed in arriving at the final model agreement.”
The new draft agreements were released on March 14, 2023 triggering the two-week public consultation. Subsequent to the period’s expiration this publication reached out to the subject Minister for clarity on whether a statement will be issued or press conference hosted to update the general public on the suggestions received and how or if these would be incorporated into the final PSAs.
This was seen as an important step to correct some of the damning provisions of the 2016 contract which slipped into the new agreements. The Minister however did not respond to the newspaper’s query.
The Ministry of Natural Resources in a statement upon the release of the draft oil contracts said the documents were compiled after rigorous research and analysis by the ministry’s internal team, and external consultants on all topics relevant to a modern petroleum agreement for Guyana. It added that the process involved a comprehensive assessment of the current petroleum agreement and the identification of best practices relevant to every contractual aspect of a modern agreement grounded in the Guyana context.
The Ministry said to ensure new investments are governed by a comprehensive framework of international best practices, the Model Petroleum Agreements will be followed by an overhaul of the 1986 Petroleum Act and Regulations.
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- Leonora, Minister of Natural Resources, President Irfaan Ali, Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs), Vickram Bharrat
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