HIGH ranking officials from Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) early this week facilitated a rather timely seminar in Georgetown as an open-handed offer of assistance to Guyana.
The board is the regulatory body that overlooks the Oil and Gas industry in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The half-day seminar titled “Preparing for Offshore Energy Resources – the Atlantic Canada Experience” was organized by the Canadian High Commission in Guyana on Monday last mainly to offer guidance for the development of Guyana’s Oil and Gas industry and to stress the need to plan ahead for the downstream socio-economic benefits of oil and gas discovery.
Canadian High Commissioner, David Devine, in opening remarks reiterated that Guyana is on the verge of realizing an opportunity of immense proportions when commercially viable basins of petroleum begin to be mined. 
“The vast reserves of hydrocarbons present in Guyana’s offshore (areas) represent the promise of a better future for all Guyanese,” he said, stressing Guyana must first take the necessary steps to “prepare for the benefits this bonanza will bring that will be shared by all sectors of society”.
He was referring to anticipated increases in capital revenues that will provide ready funding for infrastructural development.
He spoke of the creation of a wide spectrum of jobs and a concomitant broadening of the education sector that would then be able to provide the necessary training for the range of skills that will be required.  
These would include maintenance of oil extraction rigs and machinery, specialized communication and other technological systems, and for the numerous downstream enterprises that will blossom to provide downstream services in manufacturing and services.
However, the challenge of realizing the potential of an industry as large and diverse as petroleum production “is as immense as the opportunity itself”, the Head of Mission said.  “Too many times citizens have seen their hopes of a better life go unrealized” when governments failed to plan ahead and institute the necessary industry regulatory models and fiscal framework.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds who represented Government at the seminar reiterated this possibility, referring to countries around the world that had instituted no such regulatory systems when petroleum was discovered there. 
As a result, the anticipated infrastructural and socio-economic development did not evolve which created a ripe environment for rampant graft and unprecedented corruption.  A similar reference had been made by Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud a year ago when he addressed entrepreneurs at the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association’s Annual Awards Presentation Dinner in November 2010.  He had warned that Guyanese should become aware of and avoid the “Dutch Disease”.
According to online encyclopedic site, Wikipedia, a new oil and gas industry comes with certain economic dangers, one of them being what is known as the Dutch Disease, so labeled following the decline of the manufacturing sector in the Netherlands after the discovery of a large natural gas field in 1959. 
“When the Dutch Disease occurs, the immense increase in revenues (including foreign exchange) tends to destabilize a country’s economy. 
The exchange rate is increased and the local manufacturing and agricultural sectors in particular could become less competitive in the face of increased imports of goods and services. 
The prices of local goods become relatively high, demand for those goods decreases and local goods become unable to compete with the lower-priced imports.  This would have a concomitant negative effect on the job market.  During the 1970’s, Indonesia, Ecuador and Nigeria faced this same situation after the sudden increase in exploitation of natural resources.” (i-viewmagazine.net/2010/4)
The Prime Minister acknowledged the need for early formulation of the necessary regulations along with a menu of measures to protect the environment and equalize the national distribution of benefits.  “We are at the beginning of a learning curve,” he said, and “with Canada’s active participation in the process, Guyana could overcome the challenges and avoid social disorientation along with certain politico-economic destabilizing circumstances”.
“As a partner to Guyana, Canada stands willing to provide assistance through valuable technical support to government and the private sector … as the country prepares itself to become a major regional oil and gas producer,” the High Commissioner stated as he introduced the high profile panel of executives from the Canada Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB). 
Among them were Chairman and CEO Max Ruelokke, International Specialist on Canada’s Atlantic Regulations Frederick Way, Chief Environmental Officer Frank Smyth, and Chief Safety Officer Dan Chicoyne.
Both himself and PM Hinds, who lived and studied in Canada in the 1960’s, pointed to the similarities between Guyana now and Newfoundland/Labrador Province 3 decades ago.  Both territories were former colonies of Great Britain. 
In Guyana today the population rounds off at three quarters of a million while Newfoundland’s in 1979 averaged 500,000 persons.  Both territories have been affected by mass migration of skills and have grappled with the challenges of maintaining diverse economies, Guyana’s being predominantly agrarian while Newfoundland before the advent of oil was based on aquaculture, forestry, and production of pulp and paper.  
These similarities helped to influence the High Commissioner’s choice of a resource to guide Guyana’s onward march towards a viable economy.
The seminar was the beginning of what the High Commissioner envisages would be a long and fruitful collaboration with Guyana. 
The highly experienced and well tested petroleum executives also met last week with Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh and other ranking government officials to present their proposals for Guyana’s regulatory models for the hydrocarbon industry when it emerges.
Their many considerations included the ways in which the benefits could be shared, resolution of potential conflicts with other resource sectors such as fishery, and protection of the environment.
In February 2012, the Canadian High Commission will facilitate an incoming Energy Mission featuring a large delegation of Canadian Business owners interested in Joint venture partnerships to develop downstream industries in Guyana, then in June, High Commissioner Devine plans to lead a Guyanese delegation to Newfoundland and Labrador Canada to demonstrate to the local entrepreneurs first-hand how various industries develop from petroleum production.