With the aim of enhancing the professionalism of energy negotiators the Latin Chapter of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) was launched in Guyana on Tuesday.

The launching took place at the Herdmanston Lodge and with the help of the local Hughes, Fields and Stoby law firm. Now in Guyana, the company will not only engage with locals but persons in Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

The AIPN is an independent not-for-profit organization that supports international energy negotiators around the world and enhances their effectiveness and professionalism in the international energy community. Founded in 1981, it has some 3,200 members worldwide in 110 countries and is known for its model contracts widely accepted in the oil and gas industry.

AIPN has 20 industry model contracts and 6 contracts in developments and gives its services to numerous host governments, oil and gas companies, law firms and institutions.
Some if its contracts include: Confidentiality Agreement, Consultant Agreement for Business, Gas Sales Agreement, International Dispute Resolution Agreement, Joint Operating Agreement (JOA), LNG Master Sales Agreement, Seismic Acquisition and Well and more. AIPN members get complimentary access to download all AIPN model contracts, access to networking events, can join any of AIPN’s drafting committees and educational modules for those contracts where available.

Speaking with the media, Director of AIPN and Commercial Manager Hess Corporation, Michael Beirne said that it was interest from Guyana through companies like Hughes, Fields and Stoby law that led to their launch in the country.

Meanwhile, Director of AIPN and Principal at Bloem Consultants LLC, Willem Bloem said: “There is definitely key interest in anything to do with nation development [such as] learning, training, on-the-job training, course training. We have been very welcomed with open arms.” Beirne noted that of the many model contracts offered by the Association, it is likely that several will be beneficial to Guyana as it develops as a petroleum producing nation.

While the Directors noted that AIPN — in providing their contracts to members such as governments — does not take a position on what should be right or wrong, it provides the legal framework as starting point for negotiations. “AIPN does not facilitate the negotiations of contracts, it provides you with a starting point,” Bloem said.

“They can use the expertise because they know where to find it and it’s available to them. What we will not do as an organization is to actually sit with the government and say you should do this or do that. An advisory, that’s completely separate because that is a professional service [but] we’re a non-profit member-based organization so we provide these starting points but we do not actually do consulting works with the government from AIPN.”

At the launching, remarks came too from Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) Commissioner, Dennison Newell who said that it is important that organizations like AIPN grow to provide their services in needed locations. He stated: “To have the AIPN in Guyana with a view that there could emerge a formal relationship with sector stakeholders is really exciting, at least to me. I hope that with this step this evening, recognition of what the AIPN does so well is amplified and the body of work that is available already will be accessed for personal and collective education.”