GUYANA is currently host to an international energy conference which will bring together a number of experts and key players in the oil-and-gas sector. The International Energy Conference and Expo Guyana 2022 will last for five days, beginning on Tuesday, February 15 and is undoubtedly the biggest such event hosted by the Guyana Government since the country became an oil-producing nation a few years ago. Over 600 delegates are expected to participate in the discussions which are being held at the Marriot Hotel, Georgetown.

Among the many overseas dignitaries are the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, Suriname’s President Chandrikapersad Santokhi, and Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley. Others include the Chairman of Exxon Mobil Darren Woods, representatives from the business community both locally and overseas, and academics and experts in the area of oil and gas. The conference will benefit from presentations by several leading experts and governmental officials, including President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, who delivered the feature address. Other presenters include Vice-President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo; Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat and several others, including Dr. Daniel Yergin, Vice-Chairman of HIS.

This conference holds out much promise in terms of the way forward for the sustainable management of the oil-and-gas sector, and how to optimise the returns from it within the framework of the country’s low-carbon development strategy and international climate change targets set at the recent Glasgow Conference. The Government of Guyana, while seeking to optimise its returns from its oil-and-gas resources has also committed to do so in a sustainable manner, and with due regard to environmental considerations and global carbon emission targets.

President Ali, in his remarks at the opening ceremony of the multi-million dollar Baker Hughes Oil-and-Gas facility at Land of Canaan, on the East Bank Demerara, said that such investments are intricately linked to the country’s national development strategy, and will serve to enhance the country’s local capability and capacity through local-content legislation. According to the President, “What we want to achieve through this development strategy is to create synergies with the local private sector, with the local society, and those synergies go beyond profit-making; those synergies are about people-to-people connections; your relationship with the community in which you are operating; about matching your company profile and growth with the development trajectory of Guyana.”

It is significant that those remarks were made just a mere day ahead of the opening of the energy conference, which, in some important ways, mirrors the synergistic and people-oriented approach and thinking behind the management of the country’s petroleum resources. As very well-articulated by the Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley, decades of economic marginalisation and poverty cannot be brushed aside without people being given an opportunity to be meaningfully engaged and become part of a global conversation on the way forward. President Ali had repeatedly said that Guyana’s oil resources will be used to propel development in the country as a whole. Guyana, he said, must not be a rich country of poor people.

Opening speaker at the Conference, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo underscored the importance of harvesting the country’s hydro-carbon resources to ensure development, while stressing the need to protect the environment. He called on countries like Guyana to ensure petroleum resources are exported as value-added products, instead as raw commodities as has historically been the case between the developed and developing countries.

The entire globe is experiencing some challenging times, made worse by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and ways have to be found on how to utilise petroleum resources to mitigate poverty, and transform the lives of peoples and economies. This point was made by Suriname’s President Santokhi, who expressed the hope that both Guyana and Suriname could work together to mitigate global energy poverty which has made it difficult for almost one billion people to enjoy a productive livelihood.

The conference is, indeed, very timely, coming at a time when global oil prices are rising, thereby creating economic hardships. The conference is much more than putting Guyana in the spotlight on the global energy stage, but more fundamentally about how to strike the right balance between resource optimisation and environmental protection, especially in the context of rising global temperatures and their impact on low-lying island states, and, for that matter, humanity as a whole. Expectations are high that this conference will be a win-win situation, where there will only be winners and it will certainly provide some new perspectives on the current and future prospects of oil.

The conference will certainly allow for the sharing of experiences and best-practices. Guyana, as a new kid on the petroleum block, will be only too keen to learn from the experience of others, while at the same time sharing some its own success stories as a recognised and respected low-carbon country.

President Ali, Vice-President Jagdeo and all those who were instrumental in organising this conference must be highly commended for this initiative, which will only serve to raise the profile of Guyana as a key player on the international petroleum stage.

The conference venue will also highlight an exhibition which will feature local, regional and international exhibits, and will include information on Guyana’s tourist destinations. Visitors to the country will no doubt wish to sample aspects of the country’s natural beauty, and the warmth and hospitality of the Guyanese people.