Guyana And Scotland To Strengthen Cooperation

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, November 29, 2018 (CMC) – Guyana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Frederick Hamley Case, and the British High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn, are leading a delegation Aberdeen, a north-eastern city in Scotland, in an effort to build relationships to support Guyana’s emerging oil and gas sector.

As part of the visit, today, the delegation will be meeting a series of oil and gas suppliers and academic institutions.

High Commissioner Case believes Aberdeen’s experience with the North Sea sector will be indispensable in Guyana’s own journey with the energy sector.

“In terms of oil and gas, this is our first trade mission, and next year, there will be a reciprocal mission to Guyana from Aberdeen,” he said.

“I think the enthusiasm is there, both from the private sector and the government, and I am sure a lot will evolve from this.

“We want for there to be a reasonable amount of volume of local content, both in terms of the people employed and the businesses and industries that can develop from it, and we think Aberdeen is a good place to learn from,” Case added.

A series of UK firms are already in place in the country, with Aberdeen-based Stena Drilling doing work for ExxonMobil there.

High Commissioner Quinn has seen UK interest “skyrocket” in the country since he started his post there in 2015, adding that “Guyana is on the cusp of something”.

“Aberdeen has been there, done it and got the picture. There are lessons, positive and negative, to take away on how to handle things, and I think there is an opportunity for us to pass on that experience to Guyana, to help them see the way forward,” Quinn noted.

“It’s not just how to develop the industry and region, it’s also how do you prepare for the day when the oil is no longer going to be there, and creating an economy that’s not 100 percent dependent on oil and gas.”

“A lot of the work that I do is to support the UK companies that are looking to come out, and we have seen a huge uptick in the number of firms, since I arrived in 2015. It’s skyrocketed.

“The bottom line is if there is a company here, in Aberdeen, that is looking for an opportunity to get into business in Guyana, we should be their first port of call,” the High Commissioner elaborated.

With a discovery of over four billion barrels of oil, Guyana is set to begin oil production in 2020.