UWI – NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

From the expectations of oil and gas, it is highly recommended that Guyana implements measures and work towards not being overly dependent on the sector.
Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Brian Copeland, made this recommendation at the launching of two programmes by the University of Guyana (UG), geared towards filling the gap to prepare Guyanese to function in the oil and gas sector.
One programme will lead to a Master’s degree in the oil and gas sector. The other will lead to an Associate degree. The courses would be pursued in conjunction with the University of the West Indies and the University of Trinidad and Tobago.
The first graduates of will be expected to offer solutions to the very real problems of Guyana and address the many anticipated and expected challenges as the country transforms.
In taking command of the emerging sector, Guyanese need to think of long-term, strategic and sustainable development.
“The country should be careful to not create a society that is overly dependent on the state for all of its needs.”

He gave this caution as a reference to the ‘Dutch Disease’ which is suffered by many countries through a reliance on natural resources, with an increase in the economic development of a specific sector and a decline in other sectors.
Persons can create business entities, even small ones, that in turn will help contribute to the economy and more job areas for persons to push their education towards.
The national education system must ensure that it prepares citizens to successfully function in the world of the future and nurtures a strong culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.
While addressing the burning issue where graduates face the challenge of being employed in job positions that are below their academic experience the Professor said, “We strongly believe that these students should be motivated and supported to apply their expertise and inventive talents to the foundation and development of their own enterprises.”
In Guyana’s case, innovation-driven entrepreneurship, societal transformation and economic transformation must be a high priority, since the country will have oil as a major income earner. “To whom much is given, much is expected.”

ECO, a patron of UG , UWI and UTT presented rock and fossil collections and a library to UG and donated publications to UWI, UTT and Trinidad high schools during the Energy Conference. ECO welcomes the overdue plan to educate petroleum technologists in Trinidad where we donated , a library including deepwater publications, microscopes, clocks,, collections and other teaching and research materials at the foundation of the UWI Petroleum Geoscience degree. Had this begun in 2015 with the Liza discovery, Guyana would have produced work-ready graduates for Stabroek projects.  Better late than never. Regional Universities can boost cross-border deepwater development in the Caribbean Sea across CARICOM, stymied by petty bureaucracy for over 50 years.

Diaspora and Migrants

A team from the General Registrar_s Office, the Ministry of Social Protection, Civil Defence Commission, Immigration, the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Defence Force was deployed to Eteringbang, Cuyuni Mazaruni, Region Seven to assess a undocumented Guyanese returning from Venezuela.

A report initially stated there were 95 Guyanese in need of documentation however, there were approximately 340 applications, the majority of these were late. Increasing numbers of people cross the border to escape the economic and political crisis in Venezuela.

By 2050 China may dominate Guyana’s oil sector – CSIS

Evan Ellis predicts that within 30 years, PRC will be a force to reckon with in Guyana’s Oil and Gas sector. This is likely to be the same in other jurisdictions in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Ellis, a senior associate (non-resident) with the Americas Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, is a research professor of Latin American studies.
In “The Future of Latin America and the Caribbean in the Context of the Rise of China”
he examines China’s “strategy” in Latin America and the Caribbean. It points out what the superpower has already achieved and what it is likely to achieve within 30 years based on its current trajectory.
While examining the implications of China’s “greatly expanded position” as banker, employer, and military and political partner in Latin America and the Caribbean, Ellis considered some of the possible dynamics by sector – agriculture, fishing, mining, construction and logistics, manufacturing and retail, finance and banking, electricity infrastructure, telecommunication infrastructure and petroleum.
Guyana was mentioned in the professor’s examination of China’s interest in Petroleum as well as construction and logistics.
Even as the United States increases natural gas exports to Asia through the PRC-dominated Panama and (new) Nicaraguan canals, PRC-based “petroleum companies are likely to have significantly expanded their positions throughout the region, with major production operations in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, and Guyana (offshore), Ecuador, Uruguay (offshore), Bolivia (gas) and Peru.”
Already, China has a stake in Guyana’s oil industry. All of the major discoveries of high quality oil have been made in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, controlled by ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC Nexen, owned by China.
By 2050, Chinese companies such as CNPC, Sinopec, and CNOOC will have substantially increased their technical capabilities (in conjunction with advances in the industry in general), in part through acquisition of multiple smaller companies with claims in Latin America and a number of major commercial petroleum companies already operating widely in the region, including global giants whose acquisition by Chinese counterparts is currently unthinkable, such as ExxonMobil, and Chevron.
In the process of such acquisitions, Chinese petroleum companies have absorbed the technical and other capabilities of those it has acquired.
The acquisition of the technical and “other capabilities” to which Ellis referred means that China will no longer have the need to partner with other companies as is the case now with its partnership with ExxonMobil.
By 2050, the PRC’s “world-class petroleum engineering and other services companies will dominate the region, leveraging contracts to the larger Chinese National Oil Companies to expand their position; and, perhaps buying or beating out rivals such as Schlumberger and Halliburton, to the point that it will be difficult for surviving national oil companies in the region such as Pemex, Petrobras, Petroecuador, and Ecopetrol (among others) to function unless they partner with Chinese firms, receive investment funds from Chinese banks, and employ PRC-based petroleum service companies.”
It is likely that Chinese companies will emerge with substantial control over Venezuela—Guyana’s neighbour—44 oilfields, and that by 2050, “the PRC’s long game in Venezuela will have paid off through a strong position in a functional government dependent on the PRC.”
As already seen in Ecuador and elsewhere, “The Chinese style of managing its petroleum operations—cutting corners regarding salaries, employee and community benefits, and work conditions—will obligate Latin American governments to repress protests in the service of Chinese oil and petroleum service companies.

“These companies will control important parts of petroleum exports, jobs, and access to credit for the countries of the region tied to oil production.”

Aberdeen Provost to visit 

THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) and university students in Guyana are expected to benefit from oil and gas [O&G] related opportunities through the visit of the Mayor/Provost of Aberdeen this March.

↓US Congressman urges political stability 

(CMC) — A senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States Congress, Gregory W Meeks, says political stability is key to the advancement of Guyana where the coalition government of President David Granger has fallen due to an Opposition-inspired

Saipem offloads pipes for Liza Phase 1

Italian oilfield services company Saipem offloaded the second shipment of pipes to be installed as part of Exxon’s Liza Phase One project offshore Guyana.

The Guyanese authorities have informed that the shipment arrived in Georgetown, the second of multiple shipments adding to the 1519 pieces of pipes received in December.

The delivery consists of oil production flow-lines and gas and water reinjection pipes. These pipes will be laid on the seafloor at the Liza Phase One Development, located 120 miles offshore at a water depth of 1,800 meters.

The pipes will be stored in Georgetown before being taken offshore in the second quarter of 2019 to be installed by the Saipem FDS2 pipe laying vessel.

Saipem won the contract for this phase of the Liza field development in May 2017.

Under the contract, Saipem is to perform engineering, procurement, construction, and installation of the risers, flow lines, and associated structures and jumpers. The award also includes the transportation and installation of umbilicals, manifolds, and associated foundations for the production, and water and gas injection systems.

The Italian oilfield services giant in August last year secured the same workload for the Second Phase of the Liza project, too, with the work expected to begin upon the sanction of the Liza 2.

Liza development

The Liza field is located in the Stabroek block, which covers almost 27,000 square kilometers, circa 200 kilometers offshore Guyana. The field is a subsea development with a recoverable resource estimate of over one billion barrels of oil equivalent. It is expected to start production in 2020.

Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is the operator and holds 45 percent interest. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30 percent interest, and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Limited holds 25 percent interest.

Liza Phase 1 involves the conversion of an oil tanker into a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel named Liza Destiny, along with four undersea drill centers with 17 production wells. Construction of the FPSO and subsea equipment is underway in more than a dozen countries. Liza Destiny will have a production capacity of 120,000 barrels of oil per day.

A second FPSO with a capacity of 220,000 barrels per day is being planned as part of the Liza Phase 2 development, and a third is under consideration for the Payara development. The oil major has already applied for an environmental permit to develop the second phase of Liza with start-up expected by mid-2022.