Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo today announced that the draft Petroleum Bill will be put up for public consultation on Monday.
The Bill is intended to modernize the existing legislation and address a slew of issues as Guyana’s Oil and Gas Sector evolves.
“We are hoping by Monday, the draft Petroleum Act will be put out for public consultation. Yesterday, I met with the Minister and the staff and we had a discussion and we are aiming for Monday next for the draft Petroleum Act to be made public,” the Vice President said today.
Back in March, the Natural Resources Ministry said the overhaul of the 1986 Petroleum Act and Regulations was necessary to ensure that new investments are governed by a comprehensive framework of international best practices.
Turning his attention to the draft Model Petroleum Agreements for the deepwater and shallow-water blocks, the Vice President said that the documents are undergoing another round of policy review. He said the recommendations of stakeholders have been incorporated into the proposed agreements.
“The PSA we have the two models incorporating all the comments before us already, both for deep water, and shallow, because they will be two different models, one for deep water and one for shallow water, and those have already incorporated the comments, and so, it is now for another policy review, and that would finalize it,” Mr Jagdeo said.
He said while there were some recommendations for the Bill, there was none from the main Opposition APNU+AFC.
Mr Jagdeo did not indicate when the model Petroleum Agreements will be finalized.
The draft Model Petroleum Agreements were placed up for public scrutiny last March, but only for a period of 14 days.
The draft Petroleum Agreements are intended to address deficiencies within the existing agreement governing the Stabroek Block, and according to the Natural Resources Ministry the new documents embody rigorous research and analysis by its internal team, and external consultants on all topics relevant to a modern petroleum agreement for Guyana.
According to the draft Model Petroleum Agreements, the contractor will be required to pay the Government a royalty of 10% of all Petroleum produced and sold.
Further, the contractor will be required to bear the costs incurred during its petroleum operations, however, that contract cost would be recoverable only from Cost Oil and or Cost Gas.
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