The Rapid Analysis of the State of Readiness of Guyana’s Hydrocarbon Regulatory Framework report was on Monday handed over to Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman. The report was facilitated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Principal Consultant from the Association of Caribbean Energy Specialist out of Trinidad and Tobago, Anthony Paul told the Minister that decisions made in the sector today, must be the foundation of what will be needed in the future.
“My recommendation is that when you engage support to make decisions, make sure that support goes towards building capacity at the same time so that those who will run for the next 20 years will have learned from those who have designed what you are putting in place at the outset,” Paul urged.
Paul who spent half the year assessing Guyana’s oil sector readiness explained that the report examined what countries around the world have done, successes, mistakes made and how they can be avoided in deterring Guyana’s readiness.
Paul pointed out that Guyana’s advantage over other oil producing countries is that it does not have “legacy issues” to overcome. This provides Guyana “a long-term outlook on development that very few people have taken time to think through.”
“A whole of government approach” is required for the governing of the sector to where it should go, Paul added. “The approach used can be standardised or can be similar from agency to agency so if you build a common approach and find ways to implement it across the agencies I think that will help in simplifying how we will go forward,” Paul said.
Meanwhile, Minister Trotman in accepting the report said “I believe that it will hopefully point out the gaps where they exist because we never pretended that we were ready to go and so Mr Paul’s job was to identify the gaps and the areas that needed plugging immediately.”
The Minister thanked the UNDP Resident Representative Mikiko Tanaka for providing the technical support for the assessment.
