Govt. fails to renew contract for Presidential Advisor on Petroleum

The Government of Guyana has failed to immediately renew a contract with Dr. Jan Mangal. Dr. Mangal served as one of the President’s most crucial advisors on petroleum matters. His contract came to an end in March.

Yesterday, Dr. Mangal said: “I hope to be re-engaged after the summer (August) and I do not have any indication to the contrary from the President.”

Just one month shy of his contract coming to an end, Dr. Mangal was very vocal on Guyana’s lack of capacity to deal with the oil revenues to come.

In fact, the Oil and Gas Consultant stated that there are basic things that needed to be done, including the passage of the Petroleum Commission Bill, establishment of a Sovereign Wealth Fund and the creation of an effective regulatory framework.

He had said: “We need technical people in the Ministry of Natural Resources, in GRA (Guyana Revenue Authority), Ministry of Finance and they are not appearing. It’s been over two years now. Go look at the Ministry of Natural Resources and see how many foreign technical experts are in there. It is zero.” Dr. Mangal’s public statements have so far suggested that the two percent royalty in the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) between ExxonMobil and the Government is not the international norm. “I am one person…Guyana can’t rely on one person. Guyana needs to go and pull in a bunch of experts into Government. My intention when I started was to build a team up, but unfortunately resources were not available,” Dr. Mangal noted. In the absence of experts, Dr. Mangal has warned that politicians should not be involved in the management of the oil and gas sector. He has stated that politicians think from elections to elections. He stated that if Guyana takes the path of civil servants managing the industry then changes in Government will not impact the oil industry.

“If politicians are managing your industry, then come election time the industry is going to come to a standstill and six months after the elections, there won’t be anyone working in the industry,” Mangal had stated. Dr. Mangal is a Guyanese who has spent 18 years in the industry, 13 of them with Chevron working on major oil and gas projects in the United States, West Africa and Asia. Given his experience with these companies, he noted that contracts should always be reviewed as new information becomes available.

Dr. Jan Mangal has often said that the ExxonMobilGuyana PSA can be renegotiated.

(Kaieteur News)