President says Government taking time with petroleum sector

THE Government of Guyana is receiving the best advice on the evolving petroleum sector and negotiations are undertaken “above board.”
This is according to President David Granger, who noted on last week’s edition of the weekly televised programme “The Public’s Interest,” that the recommendations made so far to Cabinet are reasonable.

President Granger was at the time responding to queries on whether the government has systems in place to ensure the country is not cheated.
Noting that moves in the sector are in the interest of best practices, he said that the government was “taking its time” regarding its preparations as the sector develops. He singled out advice the government has been receiving from several entities, including the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) , the Canadians on the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) as well as his Petroleum Advisor .

As regards queries on Exxon in which it was noted that the American oil giant has not honoured court outcomes in other jurisdictions, he said that for a corporation the size of Exxon, “it would not do itself any good to have dealings or negotiations which are subjected to international scrutiny.”
The President said that all negotiations with parties on the sector, including Exxon and other oil companies, are being undertaken above board.
He said, “We are getting the best advice on the negotiations” and according to him, “when those are about to be completed, they will be put before Cabinet “as well as the National Assembly.

Recently, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan reported at a forum on oil and gas , that the Ministry of Finance is currently finalising the draft legislation to govern the establishment and operation of a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF).
Minister Jordan stated that the Finance Ministry has received extensive feedback and comments on the draft document, and an in-house team is examining the feedback with a view to revising the draft SWF provided by the Commonwealth Secretariat.
He said that the main purpose of the Sovereign Wealth Fund is to safeguard against the resource curse, to improve future generational wealth, to achieve fiscal sustainability and increase the country’s national savings.