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Promised oil spill bill still to reach Parliament
Kaieteur News- Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, on Thursday told reporters that he is hopeful that his government’s oil spill bill will be tabled in Parliament by the end of the year.
He was at the time speaking on the issue at his weekly press conference at Freedom House. Asked by Kaieteur News to give an update on the bill which was to be tabled before the recess in August but it was not Jagdeo said that, “We are going through this… the technical agencies have given their views, we have sent it up back to the consultants.”
He further explained that they are awaiting the final draft of the bill which will have the views included “and then we will have a discussion at the level of the cabinet and hopefully we will get it to the parliament before the end of the year. It is still my hope to table it before the end of the year.” The Oil Spill Act is aimed at ensuring the country is protected during the transportation of crude oil.
Vice, President, Bharrat Jagdeo.
Jagdeo in the past had said that the legislation, once in place, will cover Guyana from “all sorts of liabilities”. He had explained…a law in place like they have in the US and some other countries that will cover also transportation because we have more crude being transported in our jurisdiction so it’s not just liabilities of the oil companies but transport companies, etcetera and that’s been in the works a long time so that we can protect this country.”
The updated Petroleum Activities Act passed in the National Assembly in August last year does not address such events. The law at Part X ‘Transportation and Storage’ only regulates transportation and storage of petroleum via pipeline and gives the Minister power to grant access to third parties.
Earlier this year a vessel capsized off the shores of Tobago, leaking oil into the nation’s waters. Fisherfolk on the island had expressed concerns about the loss of their livelihoods. The Alliance For Change (AFC) in the past had said that the Trinidad spill should be an additional wake up call for Guyana.
Despite the fact Trinidad and Tobago has been an oil producing country for over a century and having had to deal with several major oil spills in the past, the AFC said the country had struggled to contain the spill. Taking this into account the opposition party said, “This unfortunate event should be an additional wake up call for Guyana.”
The AFC said currently, Guyana is producing 645,000 barrels of oil per day, representing about three times the daily volume of oil produced by Trinidad and Tobago at its peak, thus resulting in an increased risk. The opposition party said, “It is time that Guyana puts in place a comprehensive oil spill plan backed by provision of adequate resources and equipment, as well as ensure that the operators in all our oil blocks have in place full and unlimited liability coverage.”
(Promised oil spill bill still to reach Parliament)
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