Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat believes Guyana has made significant leaps and bounds since the 2023 Energy Conference.

At a press conference this morning on this year’s conference which will take place from the 19th to 22nd February, the Natural Resources Minister said this year’s event will provide additional opportunities to Guyanese businesses across the various sectors.

“By the time of the conference on the 19^th of February, we will be producing comfortably at 600,000 barrel per day average. At the last energy conference, we were about 380,000 to 390,000 barrels per day. So, a lot has happened since the last energy conference to this one. And increase in production definitely spells opportunities – opportunities throughout the value chain, opportunities for the private sector in the provision of goods and services,” Minister Bharrat said. 

The Natural Resources Minister said the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo will create an ideal platform for small, medium and large-scale businesses and companies to network and build partnerships.

Minister Bharrat said since the Local Content Act was brought into effect in December 2021, there has been an increasing number of joint venture partnerships involving local and foreign companies seeking to tap into the booming oil and gas Industry, as well as other related industries.

He said “since then, we have seen the smooth implementation of the legislation by Local Content Secretariat, and what we have witnessed is a number of joint ventures, partnerships between international investors and our local private sector, and that was the objective of having a Local Content Legislation”.

According to the Minister, given the growth in the industry; the Government is considering the possibility of increasing the number of services listed in Schedule 1 of the Local Content Act. Currently, the schedule caters for 40 services, and details what percentage of those services must be provided by Guyanese-owned and controlled businesses.  

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo, Kurt Baboolall said in addition to the 30 sponsors currently onboard, the country’s premier energy conference has already attracted 200 exhibitors, and hundreds of delegates from 19 different sectors across 21 countries. 

He said the Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo will cover a range of topics, including “Shaping the Future of Energy; Trends and Challenges; Best Practices; Building Resilience in the Global Supply Chain; and Growth and Collaboration – Strategies for Emerging Economies, among others, and Guyanese, he said should seize the opportunity”.

“The way that we have built out the event is that there is access to participate from every level from small businesses to even entrepreneurs, self-employed persons, SMEs to families because it is a family-oriented event. But you can participate by just purchasing a $1000 for an exhibition ticket, come in with your business cards, come in with your proposals, come in with your CVs. There are 200 exhibitors, who are there to interact with you. So, I do believe there is opportunity for every person at different level. There are opportunities for our sponsors, there are opportunities for our exhibitors, there are opportunities for our delegates, and there are opportunities for the persons coming into the exhibition,” he explained.

The President of Guyana, Irfaan Ali; the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Keith Rowley; the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Philip Davis; the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and the Minister of Industry, Energy, and Technology of Newfoundland, Canada, Andrew Parsons are among the growing list of dignitaries and world leaders, who are expected to join a long list of industry experts, policymakers and foreign officials at the conference next month. 

Director of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest), Dr Peter Ramsaroop; Chairman of the Private Sector, Komal Singh; and GTT’s Chief Operations Officer, Orson Ferguson were among the other officials present at the press conference, offering their wide-ranging support for the upcoming event.

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