Georgetown: Representatives of the semi-public Brazilian multinational corporation, Petrobras today presented a five-year strategic plan for Guyana’s upcoming oil and gas industry, which includes technical assistance, export and import services and training.
The plan was presented to Minister Dawn Hastings-Williams, under her new portfolio as Minister of State, during a courtesy call in the Ministry of the Presidency’s boardroom.
Minister Hastings-Williams told the Department of Public Information (DPI) that the talks between the corporation and government have been quite fruitful and promising. She hopes that this can be reinforced with the representatives’ willingness to provide a comprehensive proposal.
This, she said, will allow relevant stakeholders to have a better understanding of the information provided to see how best the government can partner with Petrobras.
“We [the Coalition government] are interested in having many countries come on board around this shelf of exploration and production of oil. As you know, oil production is bigger than bauxite, gold… this is not to say the country’s other natural resources will be pushed aside; it just means that we must be extremely careful,” she added.
Head of the Department of Energy, Dr. Mark Bynoe, who was present at the meeting, said government welcomes the company’s support.
“We are like you; we have a vision, a strategic plan in terms of where we are going… currently we have a road map and we trust that over time we begin to enhance our own capacities through buying in third-party expertise and then Guyanese expertise moving forward as minister indicated with training,” the Head of DoE said.
He noted that despite the current challenges concerning the oil and gas industry, Guyana hopes to establish a concrete plan that will benefit its citizens.
It was highlighted that Guyana has thus far benefitted from more than $16B (US$75M) directly from the oil and gas sector.
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