OIL and gas expert, Irish-American Brian McShane, believes that collaboration between the relevant stakeholders should be key to the development of the petroleum sector in Guyana.

McShane currently serves as Senior Vice- President of the Americas region of INTECSEA, one of the world’s leading and most experienced deep-water engineering companies, specialising in floating systems, offshore platforms and other highly technical areas relative to the energy sector.

He spoke to a packed room at the Herdmandston Lodge on Wednesday evening ,when he delivered a highly technical lecture on the oil and gas subsurface operations as part of a series organsied by the recently formed Guyana Oil and Gas Association (GOGA).

His lecture focused mainly on the technical aspects of offshore petroleum operations .He mentioned several projects with which INTECSEA is associated in several parts of the world, mainly the Gulf of Mexico, Ghana, the Bering Sea and Australia.

During his lecture, he informed the audience that weather conditions play an integral role in the setting up and operations of oil and gas infrastructure offshore. He said that a number of factors are taken into consideration prior to the operations being installed offshore.

At the end of the lecture, a number of questions were asked by members of the audience, several regarding Guyana‘s emerging energy sector. However, McShane said that he was not in a position to answer, since they were mainly relevant to the designated government agency overlooking the sector.

He stressed however, that collaboration in the sector is key to its development as he described Guyana’s ongoing preparations as leading off of from a relatively clean slate.

In light of recent additional oil discoveries — as well as growing interest globally in the energy sector in Guyana — moves are afoot to enhance the human capacity as well as institutional framework for development of the sector.