Georgetown: The Ministry of Natural Resources on Monday announced that it has completed the fifth lift of crude oil from the Liza Destiny Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel in the prolific Stabroek Block.
Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat said the most recent lift also represents Guyana’s final lift for 2021 from this development. The lift of 1,043,289.542 barrels of oil now brings Guyana’s total oil lifts for year 2021 to approximately 5.1 million barrels of high-quality Liza crude. This now brings the total oil lifts since first oil in 2019 to nine.
The Ministry of Natural Resources on Monday lauded the invaluable efforts of its own internal petroleum team and regulatory agencies such as the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in safeguarding Guyana’s interest in coordinating the sales of its share of crude 0il throughout 2021.
“The Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Natural Resources will continue to build technical capacity and jointly work with all relevant stakeholders to sustainably manage the petroleum sector for the benefit of all Guyanese,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said it will ensure that it refines the skillsets of Guyanese as it prepares to commission the Liza Unity FPSO in the first quarter of 2022.
To this end, the Ministry of Public Service, through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) has been offering technical oil and gas related courses to prepare Guyanese for this lucrative sector.
The programme will begin this year and targets about 150 students. Prior to the initiation of the technical programme, GOAL introduced multiple Masters level degree programmes which will position Guyanese for careers in the oil and gas industry. The government also intends to train locals through other means.
Meanwhile, Some US$534 million was the last reported balance in Guyana’s Natural Resources Fund (NRF) according to the Ministry of Finance’s October 2021 report of the fund. The statement shows that the net balance as of October 31, 2021 stood at GY$111 billion with no outflows from the fund into the Consolidated Fund.
The People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) Government will amend the laws governing the NRF to safeguard and insulate it from political manipulation.
Guyana’s first lift for the new year, 2022, is expected in January .
