Dr. Ashni Singh, a senior minister in the Office of the President responsible for finance, emphasized that many African businesses are vying for the many opportunities being offered by Guyana’s booming oil and gas sector.
It’s amazing how many of these countries already work with Guyanese companies; some even provide direct goods and services, training, and capacity building to the nation’s petroleum industry.
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Minister Singh brought attention to this on Tuesday during a press conference held at the Marriott Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown, as part of the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF2023).
Dr. Singh clarified that there are several avenues and outlets for collaboration in the oil and gas sector.
Dr. Singh noted, “Given that a number of your countries have been producing oil for such a long time. These companies are now discovering Guyana. They are hearing that Guyana is the new hotspot in the global oil industry. They are coming to Guyana seeking out opportunities…given that they have this developed capability from years, if not decades of providing goods and services to the oil and gas sector…A number of them came during the course of this conference.”
He emphasized that several companies came to Guyana and seized the opportunities that the nation’s economy offered right away.
Some are even looking for collaborative partnerships with Guyanese companies in order to profit from the experience they have already gained in Africa.
Simultaneously, they are also taking advantage of the domestic and indigenous benefits that Guyanese businesses that comply with the Local Content Legislation get.
Accordingly, he said, they are inherently better off in the forty regions that Guyana’s local content regulations have set apart.
He also listed the big foreign companies that, either individually or in groups, bid in Guyana’s open international auction for its oil fields.
The senior Minister stated, “You would have heard in the news that just a few months ago, we went out with a public international auction of oil blocks. These are additional blocks beyond the blocks which are currently in production in Guyana. So, we have a number of blocks that we put out to international auction.”
African interests were actually included in some of the consortiums, according to Dr. Singh, suggesting that this is one way that they would be able to participate directly.
As blocks are given up, Guyana will eventually sell off additional oil blocks for a second round.
The minister emphasized that there would be plenty of chances for enterprises in Africa and other international countries to participate directly in these auctions as developers involved in exploration, production, and potentially even extraction of oil and gas.
