ESTABLISHING cooperation in the area of alternative energy was among areas covered when President David Granger and his high-level delegation met with President of Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production Company, Clay Neff and team on Monday.
Active in more than 180 countries, Chevron is one of the world’s largest oil companies. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, natural gas, and geothermal energy industries, including hydrocarbon exploration and production; refining, marketing and transport; chemical manufacturing and sales and power- generation. It also has interest in solar, wind power and biofuel energy.

Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations, Ambassador Michael Ten-Pow, Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge; career diplomat, Sir Shridath Ramphal; Presidential Adviser on Petroleum, Dr. Jan Mangal and Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Audrey Waddell, were among the officials who accompanied the President to the meeting with the Chevron officials. President of Chevron Africa and Latin America was accompanied by Mamadou Beye, Chevron General Manager of Policy, Government and Public Affairs (Africa and Latin America).
Describing the meeting as fruitful, Minister Greenidge told journalists that Chevron’s plans were discussed, and how those initiatives would fit into Guyana’s medium and long-term plans.

“We spoke for example, [about] Chevron’s interest in alternative energy, solar energy, and a range of alternative in energy sources in which they have been commercially active, and that is a useful frame in which the cooperation might be developed in the long term,” Minister Greenidge detailed.

The oil company also used the opportunity to give Guyana an overview of its approach to its corporate responsibility. On Monday afternoon, President Granger and his delegation also met with John Hess, Chief Executive Officer of HESS Corporation— the exploration company that holds a 30 per cent interest in ExxonMobil’s offshore drilling operations in the Stabroek Block.
Though details of the meeting had not been made public up to press time, in May, 2017, when the Guyanese Government met with HESS, President Granger had made it clear that the production of oil must be aligned with the Government’s green agenda.
He had told the HESS CEO that while the country is eager to have oil production come on stream, it must be done in the context of Guyana’s ‘green’ development trajectory and as such, protection of the environment is critical.
“We are very concerned about the preservation of the environment… We want the extractive industries to be developed in a sustainable way,” the President was quoted as saying back in May.

Also on Monday, the Guyanese officials also met with executives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) led by UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner. Also at the meeting were Jessica Faieta, the Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, UNDP, Guyanese Kenroy Roach, Regional Advisor, Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, UNDP and Rosita Todorova, Policy Specialist, UNDP.

Briefing the media on the meeting with the UNDP, the Foreign Affairs Minister said the discussion was wide-ranging. “They examined cooperation between the UNDP and Guyana, those projects that were in place. More particularly, there were concerns about the environment, commitment to achieving environmental targets, and also all of the consequences of the recent hurricanes in the region,” Minister Greenidge disclosed. He said Guyana also signalled its willingness to further assist within its own limited capacity to complement the assistance already provided. “[We were] encouraging the UNDP to try to see what they could do, saying that in the event that a place or land space of any kind is needed, even on a temporary basis, Guyana is prepared to make that available, in addition to the material resources and also the small financial contribution which has been made.”