– Luncheon
THE Administration is seeking to ensure that the skills needed to support the venture and growth of the fossil fuel industry in Guyana are developed at the professional, technical and operational levels, as oil exploration moves forward locally. Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) and Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon identified the strategy on Wednesday as he underscored the importance of capacity building to the success of the quest in this country.
He said Guyana is no exception with its commitment to drilling for oil off its eastern coast.
Alluding to the advantages, Luncheon said: “We have programmes to be revised to address this niche that will be created. When we speak of professionals, we are speaking of academic pursuits in drilling, refinery, product, technical people to operate rigs and development of wells and, as Cabinet decided (on Tuesday), people to be trained in disaster responsiveness.”
According to him, there is the possibility, in the face of successful drilling, for an important sector or growth area to be developed.
He also noted that, once efforts to develop the sector in Guyana prove successful, the intention, in the long run, will be to have the oil refined here before exportation, which will mean a higher selling price.
“In the more mature situation, the intention is to have our oil refined in Guyana and I believe that steps have been made to do the most basic of the preliminaries, to acquire land…a sizeable plot of land has been leased to CGX for such an eventual development,” Luncheon disclosed.
Additionally, memoranda of understandings have been explored with financial capital outlets, from Trinidad and elsewhere, about the establishment of a refinery, close to the Berbice River, he stated.
Efforts towards oil exploration in Guyana’s offshore area were furthered last year and, in September, REPSOL, the internationally renowned oil exploration company, was given the green light, by former President Bharrat Jagdeo, to extend its deadline for drilling the Jaguar Well in the Guyana Offshore area.
Earlier this month, the Canadian company, CGX’s rig set sail from the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to begin drilling shortly after it arrives here, in January, too.
CGX is managed by a team of experienced oil and gas and finance professionals from Guyana, Canada, the United States (U.S.) and the United Kingdom (UK).