8
UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 3 MARCH 2019
CAMPUS NEWS
How will
GUYANA
benefit from its
OILWEALTH?
Copeland speaks at the launch of
petroleum engineering programmes
with University of Guyana
On behalf of The University of the West Indies, I
am pleased to bring greetings and congratulations to
the University of Guyana on the occasion of this Launch
Symposium for its Associate and Master’s Degrees in
Petroleum Engineering.
The establishment of anAssociate Degree in Petroleum,
in partnership with the University of Trinidad and Tobago,
and the Master’s Degree in Petroleum Engineering, to be
delivered by The University of the West Indies in Guyana
and in Trinidad and Tobago, is an important example of
how focus, commitment and co-operation can have positive
outcomes.
Robin M Mills, CEO of Qamar Energy, and author of
The Myth of the Oil Crisis
, wrote a piece last October for
The National Business
, a publication in the United Arab
Emirates. His headline was unequivocal: “Guyana”, he said,
“may be the next big beast in global oil”.
He made the point that, by the 2020s, Guyana could
well be sharing output of 700,000 barrels per day among just
770,000 people, producing a medium-light crude which is
closer to major Middle East grades – unlike the mostly very
light shale oil found in the United States.
In his article, Mills claimed:
If the discoveries are significant for the world, they will
be transformational for Guyana. Gross oil revenues of some
United States Dollars 13 billion annually by the mid-2020s, or
about $17,000 per inhabitant, (in) contrast to its 2016 GDP
of just $3.4bn. Only some 14 per cent of this will come to the
government for the first two to three years while costs are paid
off, but this is still an enormous bonanza.
The article goes on to identify the pitfalls that await,
the fears and the challenges that already exist, not the least
of which is the challenge of coping with the speed of the
upcoming wealth surge. As Matt Blomerth, head of Latin
American Upstream Research for the consultancy firm
Wood McKenzie, said in a January 2017 New York Times
article, “it’s not often that a country goes from 0 to 60 as
fast like this”. As most of us know, this can be exhilarating
and frightening at the same time.
Allow me to posit this to you – as South America’s
newest oil producer, petroleum can bring untold wealth.
But what happens beyond that? What happens beyond the
petroleum boom? How will the people of Guyana benefit
from this yet untapped wealth? What will Guyana look like
in the next few years?
Answers to these and other related questions can
perhaps be obtained by drawing from the examples of
others. Mills ended his article with these guiding words:
“Guyanese are fortunate to have contrasting examples next
door in Venezuela of how a mismanaged oil sector can ruin
a country; and Trinidad (and Tobago), where petroleumhas
generally been positive for the country”.
There is no question that everyone believes Guyana’s
large oil and gas discoveries have to be used responsibly
for the betterment of the country and its people. Indeed,
these degree programmes are perhaps the first, critical
steps which would equip and encourage graduates to take
responsibility, to use their knowledge and expertise to ensure
there is accountability in the extraction process and that
Guyana would, in the first instance, get its fair share from
the monetisation of this natural resource. Even better, it sets
the stage for Guyana to take greater command of its oil and
gas sectors in the not too distant future.
There is no question
that everyone believes
Guyana’s large oil and
gas discoveries have to
be used responsibly for
the betterment of the
country and its people.
Indeed, these degree
programmes are
perhaps the first,
critical steps…
As far back as the year 2000 the United States
Geological Survey (USGS),
an agency of the US
Government, reported on the enormous potential
of Guyana as a source of offshore oil in South
America. In the years since the reporting (and
drilling) has only strengthened that conclusion.
“Three discoveries in the 6.6 million acre
Staebroek Block have made Guyana one of the
world’s three most promising deepwater plays,”
an article from
World Oil
magazine said in 2017.
Guyana, it said, had the promise of “an oil revenue
boom by 2020”.
But with an economy dependent on agriculture
and extractive industries, and very little experience
as an energy producer, how is Guyana to develop
the oil industry know-how and manpower to
realise that potential? They have a very helpful
neighbor.
On January 25, 2019, The University of the
West Indies (UWI), the University of Trinidad and
Tobago (UTT) and the University of Guyana (UG)
formally launched new undergraduate and post-
graduate programmes in petroleum engineering
at the UG. The programmes will train a new
generation of petroleumengineers to leadGuyana’s
emerging energy industry.
At the launch symposium hosted by UG’s
TurkeyenCampus inGeorgetown, Vice-Chancellor
Professor IvelawGriffith said the programmes were
developed through partnerships withTheUWI and
UTT over a period of 15 months. The Associate
of Science Degree in Petroleum Engineering will
be offered by UG in collaboration with UTT. The
Master of Science in petroleum Engineering will
be offered by The UWI in partnership with UG.
UWI St AugustineCampus Principal Professor
Brian Copeland ledThe UWI team to Guyana. He
gave the keynote address at the launch symposium.
UWI Today
is pleased to share excerpts from his
address. It can be viewed in its entirety online at
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