Natural Resources minister says Petroleum Commission Bill is priority

to provide policy guidance, but also give direction to the Commission regarding, size of the establishment, the employment of staff and the terms and conditions of employment, the provision of equipment and use of funds, reorganization of such works of development as to involve a substantial outlay on capital account, training, education and research, the disposal of capital assets; the application of the proceeds of such disposals,” Ali, then PPP/C MP, had stated .

“Thus, the Minister is literally empowered to dictate inter alia, how many persons an independent Commission should employ, what should be the terms and conditions of employment for the staff of the Commission, how an independent Commission should use its funds et cetera. Based on our review of similar legislation in other countries, we were unable to locate one that bestows comparable powers to the Minister. Indeed, based on our review we found that the only power the Minister is granted in other countries is the power to provide policy guidance,” he added.

Chatham House Fellow and Project Head of the New Petroleum Producers Discussion Group, Dr Valerie Marcel has also underscored the importance of insulation of the Petroleum Commission from interference.

The revised Petroleum Commission Bill was expected to return to Parliament in late 2018 but the December 21 No Confidence Motion that felled the APNU+AFC government saw it being shelved. The revised version, which was seen by this newspaper would not only have significantly reduced the powers of the subject Minister, it also incorporated clauses aimed at ensuring its independence, transparency and accountability.

Provision was also been made for at least two women to be on the Board of Directors of the Commission and the bill now caters for both genders, according to excerpts of the reviewed Bill.

Moreover, and considering that Guyana is a frontier oil and gas country with no data on petroleum, a recommendation by the World Bank, which had helped with the review and redrafting of the Bill, stated that Guyana should establish “and manage a national data repository for digital/soft petroleum data, including digital/soft data as well as hard/physical data such as core samples, cuttings and fluid samples, and manage and undertake research of the petroleum data and a central database of operators and other persons involved in petroleum activities.”

Bharrat said that he hopes that there is law governing operations of the sector “Because we have seen so many corrupt deals already and that is something we want to avoid from the very inception so that the proceeds from that sector can benefit all Guyanese.”

And while he has no experience in the sector, Bharrat said that he believes that he will perform well and is up for the challenge. “Natural resources is a challenge and it requires good management and dedication. And I believe that natural resources can break or make this country… depending on how well we manage these resources,” he said.

He added that he already has plans to boost local content capacity in the oil & gas sector while creating jobs both directly and from spin-offs of the sector.

The PPP/C had heavily criticized the APNU+AFC government when then Director of the Department of Energy Dr Mark Bynoe was appointed saying he lacked the experience to oversee such an important sector.

Former Petroleum Advisor Dr Jan Mangal had said that a person overseeing oil and gas, then with the Department of Energy being agency responsible for the sector, should “be someone with international gravitas, someone who could challenge the likes of [former US Secretary of State and former Head of ExxonMobil] Rex Tillerson, for example, who was comfortable talking [oil and gas] with Ministers from the major producing countries and the top executives from the major oil companies.”