Transforming Guyana Episode V: Implementing Guyana’s Local Content Legislation
Guyana Business Journal Magazine + Caribbean Policy Consortium
Media Advisory – October 13, 2022
The Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Commonwealth Foundation are organising two events in the run up to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh. These events are designed to complement each other, offering multiple perspectives in the energy/development/climate change debate:
18th October 2022
The Commonwealth Foundation is hosting Just Transitions, as part of their Critical Conversation series. It will be one of three events the Foundation is holding ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference.
19th October 2022
The ICWS is organising an online discussion ‘Challenges to Commonwealth Green Transitions: the Cases of Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago’, https://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events/challenges-commonwealth-green-transitions .
Energy Outlook in the Americas – Florida International University
Wednesday, October 19, 2022 – 12pm – 1:30pmEDT
https://calendar.fiu.edu/event/energy_outlook_in_the_americas#.Y0YgmEzMLIU
US Department of Commerce Caribbean Trade Mission & Conference
October 23-28, 2022
Miami and various Caribbean markets
https://www.trade.gov/caribbean-trade-mission
Caribbean Investment Forum
November 8-11, 2022 – Trinidad
Caribbean Investment Forum launched with focus on building resilience and boosting investment in the region | Caribbean Export
Guyana Building Out Competitive Economy For 2030 And Beyond,… | MENAFN.COM
Oil money helping to ease impact of inflation, says government | OilNOW
150,000 Guyanese to become coders through new UAE partnership – News Room Guyana
Govt to solicit proposals to construct 30k barrel oil refinery in Reg 6 – Pres Ali – Guyana Times
Guyana now offering land for 30,000 bpd oil refinery | OilNOW
Guyana seeks interest in establishing oil refinery for national security purposes – Jamaica Observer
Guyana seeks investors for oil refinery | Loop Caribbean News
https://caribbean.loopnews.com/content/guyana-seeks-investors-oil-refinery
Oil refinery to be constructed at Crab Island, Berbice River – Demerara Waves Online News- Guyana
ExxonMobil’s Monumental Guyana Discovery | TankTerminals
More Guyana barrels will go to Europe, says Chief Economist | OilNOW
Guyana exports could replace 4% of all Russian gas that went to Europe in 2021 – Analyst: OilNOW
Guyana could emerge as a major LNG exporter in coming years as massive hydrocarbon discoveries continue to mount off the country’s coast and output from neighbours such as Trinidad and Tobago continue to decline. In his most recent OilNOW column published on Friday, Arthur Deakin, Director of Americas Market Intelligence’s energy practice, said with Russia’s discounted oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) being diverted to Asian buyers, and its gas deliveries to Europe falling by 80%, the world’s energy markets have been forced to shift and recalibrate.
Solar power leads energy transition pathway amidst Guyana’s oil boom – Stabroek News
Solar farm confirmed for another Guyana town | OilNOW
Liberalisation of telecommunications sector has promoted its expansion – PM – Department of Public Information, Guyana
New telecoms provider Green Gibraltar to begin hinterland demonstrations next month – Stabroek News
Major Palmyra projects to start before year-end – Ali – Stabroek News
Jamaican entrepreneur keen on expanding Home Choice Enterprises brand here – Stabroek News
More investors flocking to Guyana since local content law enacted – Economist: OilNOW
The provisions outlined in Guyana’s Local Content Act – a critical piece of legislation for the country’s booming oil sector took centre stage during Episode V of the Guyana Business Journal’s Transforming Guyana webinar on Wednesday. Since the law’s December 2021 passing, it faced some criticism, chief among which is that it hampers foreign investors from doing business in Guyana. But Economist and Executive Director of local business body, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Richard Rambarran, pointed out that what has been happening is quite the opposite.
Almost 100% compliance with 45-day requirement to pay local suppliers – LCS Head: Guyana Times
Almost all the companies operating in the oil and gas sector have complied with the Government’s new stipulation that they must pay local suppliers for goods and services within a 30- to 45-day period. This is according to the Head of the Local Content Secretariat (LCS), Martin Pertab… At the time, the Ministry had approved the updated Local Content Master Plans of several tier-one contractors, including SBM Offshore and Halliburton, who have complied with this new condition.
Evening News – 3:54: LOCAL CONTENT SECRETARIAT SEES ALMOST 100% COMPLIANCE WITH 45-DAY REQUIREMENT TO PAY LOCAL SUPPLIERS
Over 400 Guyanese secured jobs through El Dorado Offshore in oil & gas sector – Guyana Times
Local joint venture opens fire and Safety Company: Kaieteur News
– Inks deal with SBM to certify fire extinguishers on FPSOs
Guyana passed its Local Content Legislation in December 2021, and while there might be some loopholes that need to be filled, local Businessman, Hemant Singh, the owner of Industrial Supplies Limited, is using it to his advantage to reap some of the benefits this country’s lucrative oil and gas sector has to offer. Singh has teamed up with a Canadian firm, K&D Pratt, to form a local joint venture called, ‘Meridian 60 Fire and Safety’.
Local firms must up their game; ‘I forget it; I gun get it to yuh tomorrow’ can’t work | OilNOW
CNOOC Petroleum Guyana opens head office in Georgetown – News Room Guyana
Guyana signs air services agreement with China – Department of Public Information, Guyana
There are too many misconceptions surrounding the PSA and oil revenues: Stabroek News (Letter to the Editor) by Joel Bhangwandin
Reference is made to Professor Andre Brandli’s letter to the Editor of Stabroek News dated October 11, 2022, with the caption “Mr. Bhagwandin is operating completely in the dark with his calculations.” Professor Brandli argued that “in essence, Mr. Bhagwandin is trying to mislead the readership of Stabroek News by presenting a fictitious scenario of the development of Guyana’s future oil revenues using assumptions”. Brandli went on to state that there is no reliable data in the public domain on the capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenditures (OPEX) for each of the two floating, production and storage & offloading vessels (FPSOs).
‘Natural Resource Curse’ could befall Guyana with excessive spending of oil dollars- IMF warns: Kaieteur News
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that between 2023 and 2025 Guyana will see a massive ramp up in its oil production in the ExxonMobil-operated Stabroek Block. But with the Government already fixated on rapid spending of the imminent revenues to fuel its development agenda, the financial institution said there can be economic consequences that could befall the nation such as ‘natural resource curse.’
Transparency under attack, already endangered: Kaieteur News (Editorial)
Transparency in Guyana has always been a problem for Governments, leaders, ministers, and the public servants that they select to support them… It is over a month after the reportedly (and supposedly) small offshore oil spill involving one barrel of oil, and Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has lost its powers of speech, more likely, control of its institutional mind. If it is taking over a month for a single-barrel (supposedly) oil spill, and the EPA is wordless and all but worthless, relative to the welfare of the Guyanese environment and the Guyanese people, then the conclusion has to be that the monstrously worse is what is to be expected from this guardian agency, should a big oil spill occur.
Gas-to-Shore project: Upgrades to GPL grid to be completed by 2024 – Project Manager – Guyana Times
Gas-to-shore project ‘ill conceived’ without plan to improve electricity infrastructure – Patterson – Stabroek News
The gas-to-shore pipeline project has taken off, with current estimates triple the original cost: Stabroek News (Letter to the Editor) by GHK Lall
An economically sound Wales gas-to-energy (WGTE) would be a most satisfying development for Guyanese. It is one that holds the potential to give some material and psychic relief to citizens and commerce, and nothing could be more welcomed. But, as much as I am trying to squeeze some of the underpinnings of the WGTE to match present day reality, and reasonable future projections, significant doubts continue to surface. This is based on an analysis done by the same engineer, Guyanese-born, now Jamaican-based, Mr. Fitzroy Fletcher. I focus mostly on the pipeline segment of the WGTE.
Will OPEC’s biggest production cut since 2020 fuel a global recession?: OilNOW
OPEC+ announced the biggest cut to its target production level since 2020 last week – some two million barrels per day (bpd). And the International Energy Agency (IEA) believes that the decision increases energy security risks worldwide and could lead to even higher oil prices. It could just be the turning point for a global recession. Thursday, in its Oil Market October report, the IEA described OPEC’s production cut as one of the multiplying “disruptive market forces.”
‘Black gold’ for Guyana and Suriname, a blessing or curse?
Brazil assisting Guyana with large scale wheat production – Demerara Waves Online News- Guyana
Suriname at a crossroads in much-hyped exploration quest | Upstream Online
Iran starts refining its crude oil in Venezuela: Oil minister
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/10/16/691059/Iran-oil-refinery-Venezuela-launch-Owji
El Palito, first Iranian-built overseas refinery opened in Venezuela | Al Mayadeen English
Latin America’s role in a potential LNG boom: OilNOW (Columnist) by Arthur Deakin
There is no denying that the world’s inflationary pressures and future economic prospects are directly tied to energy-related geopolitics. In early October, OPEC+ signalled support for a higher oil price by cutting production by 2 million barrels per day (bpd), a clear disregard of America’s requests to keep production stable. OPEC+ claims they are seeking to avoid a supply glut if a recession comes, while the U.S. accused them of siding with Russia. Tensions are frothing.
Unappealing fiscal terms, mature gas fields placing Trinidad at risk | OilNOW
10 African countries that surprisingly have the cheapest gas prices in the world | Business Insider Africa
IMF Urges Africa Oil Producers to Ready for Shock-Prone World | Rigzone
DOD Exercise Points to Ways Western Hemisphere Can Combat Climate Change > U.S. Department of Defense > Defense Department News
Middle Eastern countries are sitting on an ocean of natural gas
But they cannot ship much to Europe, where demand is ravenous
Oct 13th 2022 | DUBAI
It is rare for the Israeli government to agree with Hizbullah, the Lebanese Shia militia and political party. But in effect it did on October 11th, after months of American-led talks. As The Economist was published, a deal with Lebanon was awaiting review in Israel’s parliament.
This is not peace in our time: although the deal demarcates Israel’s maritime border with Lebanon it will not end the long state of war between them. But it is striking, and timely for the West, because it may unlock new gas resources that Europe desperately needs to replace supplies from Russia that have been disrupted since its invasion of Ukraine.
Nine of the 20 countries with the largest proven gas reserves are in the wider region. Qatar, the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), plans to increase its production by 43% by 2026. Israel and Lebanon hope their maritime deal will mean new discoveries in the once-disputed waters. Hours after it was clinched, bigwigs from TotalEnergies, a French giant, met Lebanese officials. Earlier this month Energean, a British firm, started running tests at Israel’s Karish field near the border.
Yet a mix of geopolitics and poor governance makes it hard to exploit those resources. Simply getting the stuff to market can be tricky. There is little capacity to transport it from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe. A pipeline has been mooted for years. It could take a short route north to Turkey and link up with existing conduits to the European Union. But to do so it would have to cross Cypriot territory, which is politically fraught. Or it could stretch all the way to Greece, and perhaps onwards to Italy. But that would require the world’s longest undersea pipeline and take the better part of a decade to finish.
For now, that leaves liquefaction. Egypt has two LNG plants on its Mediterranean coast. Israel and Lebanon have none; Egypt has been importing gas from Israel in order to re-export it. Even running at full tilt its LNG plants can supply only 2% of Europe’s total demand (and 6% of what it used to import from Russia). Expanding capacity will take years.
Other countries are struggling to boost production. Algeria, Europe’s third-largest gas supplier, will enjoy record revenue this year. Sonatrach, the state-owned oil-and-gas giant, expects to earn $50bn from energy exports, up from $35bn last year. The windfall comes from higher prices, not higher production. Sonatrach has signed some big deals with Eni, an Italian oil major, to boost capacity. But many of its big projects will not come online before 2024.
Iraqi oil wells produce lots of natural gas but lack the infrastructure to process it. Around half is flared. In 2020 the country burned almost 18bn cubic metres of natural gas, equivalent to about 5% of Europe’s annual consumption. Researchers at Columbia University estimate that flared gas in north Africa alone could replace 15% of Europe’s imports from Russia—if it can be captured.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to exports, though, is soaring domestic demand for gas (see chart). In Egypt, for example, it has risen by 35% since 2015. A fast-growing population—which hit 104m in September and adds 1m people every seven months—needs ever more electricity from gas-fired plants. The government has also urged motorists to switch fuels: many of Cairo’s ubiquitous white taxis now run on compressed natural gas rather than petrol.
Here, too, governments are belatedly taking action. Algeria is installing new combined-cycle gas-power stations, which can produce about 50% more electricity from the same amount of fuel. The national regulator reckons they will account for 55% of installed capacity by 2028, up from 23% in 2018.
Egypt, meanwhile, is urging businesses to cut consumption to free up gas for export. Such measures have rankled some Egyptians, who grumble about being told to turn off their lights so that Europeans can turn up the heat.
