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‘He was frustrated’
—Jagdeo makes excuse for minister’s refusal to update Parliament of companies to receive oil blocks
Kaieteur News- Although it continues to tout transparency in the management of the petroleum sector, the Government of Guyana (GoG) has been reluctant to share basic details pertaining to the sector.
This was recently the case when Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat was simply asked to state the names of the companies that government will be signing Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) with this year.
It was during the Consideration of Estimates in the National Assembly that former Minister of Public infrastructure David Patterson asked Bharrat about the companies. The Minister responded that this will be done later “for obvious reasons.”
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo
“We will announce the four blocks that will be awarded (to) the companies at a later date and for obvious reasons too,” he said.
Just days later the Ministry issued a statement listing the companies that GoG will sign PSAs with. “These include blocks S4 – TotalEnergies, Qatar Energy, and Petronas; S5 – International Group Investment Inc.; S7 – Cybele Energy; and S10 – International Group Investment Inc,” the Ministry said in its statement.
It also reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring that the development of the oil and gas industry is conducted in a manner that is both transparent and beneficial to the country.
Subsequently, VP Jagdeo at his press conference said he believes the Minister was “just frustrated” when he refused to share the information in the House. Jagdeo contended that the Opposition went to the House seeking information that was already in the public domain.
“Now I think the Minister was just frustrated like I am sometimes, because they (are) going to Parliament to try to find out what was in the public domain for almost a year. If you just Google it, you will find it. We had, when the bid was closed, we listed all the companies, I sat right here and listed the companies that were successful in the bids,” he said.
In addition to that, Jagdeo reminded that he also responded to queries on the delayed conclusion of the process. As such, the VP argued that there is no secrecy surrounding the auction. He therefore concluded, “It’s an example in the Budget of laziness.”
It should be noted that prior to the Ministry’s statement this year, there was no indication that the successful companies would be moving on to sign oil contracts. Instead, the GoG had merely released the names of the oil companies that had submitted bids.
(‘He was frustrated’)
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