MINISTER of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, has said he is pleased with the overall performance of the extractive sector in 2016.

As the year comes to a close, the Government Information Agency (GINA) asked the minister to self-assess the extractive sector. “I’d like to say that we’ve ended it on a fairly good note. I wouldn’t say that it was perfect, but good,” Minister Trotman responded.

The Ministry of Natural Resources has oversight responsibility for the forestry, mining and quarrying sectors, and the emerging oil and gas sector.

Minister Trotman believes: “We’ve managed to stabilise things in the forest sector”, despite the challenges faced this year. The forestry sector was expected to produce 320,000 cubic metres of logs, 30 per cent below the 2015 level of 450,000 cubic metres, but at the time of writing this article, the final production was not available. Export value was projected to be US$38M, a 15 per cent decline from 2015’s US$46M.

Challenges the forest sector faced included underperformance by existing concessioners; Barama Company giving up its 1.6M hectares of logging concession; several other large concessions being returned to the state by default, and in some instances non-compliance; slowdown on the international market; and ban of greenheart export to the United Kingdom.

Nonetheless, Minister Trotman remains confident that the sector would improve its performance in the new year. “(These) have had an effect, but we believe that it gives us an opportunity to assess what we have, revalue the forest, and we are now preparing to give out concessions,” Minister Trotman noted.

The Natural Resources Ministry will be moving to redistribute the concessions that have been returned to the state. “We are now preparing to give out concessions,” Minister Trotman said. Small loggers in particular stand to benefit from this. Barama’s concession will be divided into four pieces of 400,000 hectares, one of which will be set aside for small loggers.

“Small loggers will always be taken care of,” Minister Trotman has assured.

In the mining sector, there was “one death too many”, but the Ministry of Natural Resources “has managed to pull back on the mining deaths,” Minister Trotman noted.

For bauxite, the minister noted that a committee has been convened to examine the future of the sector and the possible revival of the aluminium plant. Minister Trotman noted that this ministry would continue to work with miners to address their concerns in relation to concessions and mining lands.

“This year the focus was on mines’ safety, and of course we want to take that into 2017, and as well to concentrate on other rare minerals,” Minister Trotman noted.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Natural Resources has been working assiduously to ensure that Guyana is ready for oil production, which is expected to begin in 2020. Guyana has partnered with a number of international agencies and countries to develop the sector. In November, ExxonMobil and its partners formally notified that Guyana has commercial quantities of oil, in keeping with the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act Cap 65:01.