Oil companies’ hiring of environmental specialists a good move, says Adams

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Dr Vincent Adams has praised moves by oil major ExxonMobil and its prime contractors to hire specialists for in-house oversight of the environment as he highlighted that the regulatory body faces challenges in filling those positions because of the lack of local personnel and money to pay overseas specialists.

“The more highly skilled people that they can hire, [it] is better not only for their company and its operations, but the EPA and Guyana as a whole as it gives this nation confidence in their operations,” Adams told Stabroek News. “I am pleased that they are going to be hiring the best and most capable employees. I do not have that luxury. I can advertise locally and if it is not available, which might be 90 per cent of the case, I can look abroad also, but can I afford it?” he said.

Recently, among a number of other vacancies, ExxonMobil advertised for an environmental and regulatory coordinator while TechnipFMC is seeking contractors to provide waste treatment and disposal services and Schlumberger had sought contractors to do air quality testing.

Adams said that most companies understand the seriousness of sanctions if they breach environmental regulations and it is why they would seek out the most highly skilled personnel for the jobs.

He explained that, as in the case of Schlumberger, air quality testing is necessary since dust from bentonite (a type of clay often used in drilling mud for oil and gas wells) and other materials may escape into the air and the company could face sanctions from the EPA. “It is no different to, say, road construction, where you have to monitor the quality of air, that is, the pollution volume…” he said.

With companies such as ExxonMobil, he said, they would look to the home country to meet local content requirements but with a nascent oil and gas sector such as Guyana’s, they would have to most times look externally.

However, he noted that the expertise sought can be found at the companies’ branches in countries across the world.

The EPA, Adams said, would need matching

skilled personnel, even as he pointed to a World Bank report which recommended that the EPA establish an oil and gas department which should have at least 36 members of staff.

“I will but I am not in the same position. They can find those people in-house, they are readily available in-house. And they can afford to pay them. I don’t even know what my budget will be next year.

I am making provisions to hire these people. I plan to double my staff to support the oil and gas unit but as you know, the World Bank has recommended that the unit alone be comprised of 36 highly skilled people. That I know for sure we won’t find in Guyana. And besides that, we have plans of increasing overall EPA staff as we have to carry out our legislative mandate. But all of this, I have to emphasise, will be dependent on our budget allocation,” he said.

Asked if the budget proposal he submitted for the 2020 fiscal year catered for the developments mentioned, the EPA chief replied that he feels it will “put the EPA in a position to carry out its legislative mandate in an effective manner” as it is “something which we have not been doing due to lack of resources.”

“It has a plan and budget to correct that situation,” he said.

Adams was quick to point out that “people coming from abroad are coming with a high price” even as he observed that ExxonMobil and other private companies can pick and choose because of their vast resources.

He emphasised that the companies’ hiring of experts is good news for the EPA as he believes that they bring better services to this country.

“I would like for them to have the best. It helps. If they are supposed to be taking care of the environment as they exploit the resources, I don’t want for them to have unqualified and incompetent staff. It would give me more confidence that their operations would be run more soundly when they have the best,” he said.

Adams pointed to Demerara Distillers Limited, which established an environmental monitoring department after it was found to have committed breaches by the EPA. “Look at DDL. They are setting up a new department where they brought and will bring in experts from Canada. The more qualified [the] people…the better for the project. It is better for the operations and the [Environment, Safety and Health] programme,” he added.