Japan exploring oil, gas investments in Guyana

A 12-man team from Japan’s Information Center for Petroleum Exploration and Production (ICEP) is on a two-day research mission to explore oil and gas investment opportunities in Guyana. The purpose of the mission is to provide the information gathered to the 29 ICEP member companies seeking viable opportunities for funding investments in the sector.

The team met with Natural Resources and Environment Minister Robert Persaud on Monday, who gave his commitment to work with the mission. “They will be having a technical workshop with our technical staff going through the issues, learning a bit more about our legislative framework and the work that has been done. They will be meeting also with the prime minister, minister of foreign affairs, and representatives of the private sector who are involved in the business of oil and gas exploration,” Minister Persaud said.
He explained that it is important that an interest is seen since it confirms that Guyana is increasingly becoming a global area of interest in terms of future oil and gas developments.
The minister explained to the visiting team that the oil and gas sector in Guyana is in the preliminary exploration stage with two companies currently drilling, and there are very optimistic views on the possibilities existing in the development of a local oil and gas sector.
He also reiterated to the team government’s openness to foreign investment and the fact that there has never been a preference for any particular country or investor.
“We are very much open and looking at the various proposals that we received and to see in these proposals, the ones we would want to move forward with de pending on how they fit in our national development objective and serve the people of Guyana.”
Noting that Guyana and Japan have had strong ties, he expressed pleasure that there is now some private investment interest in the country. ICEP president and mission leader to Guyana, Akira Suzuki confirmed that Guyana is attracting much attention as an emerging country in terms of its development in oil and natural gas, stating that, “it is good timing for us to come here to seek opportunities”.
Suzuki took the opportunity to express thanks to the government and people of Guyana for the support extended to the government and people of Japan in March 2011, when a massive earthquake hit that country.
Suzuki explained that because of the earthquake, most of the nuclear power plants in Japan are not working and the country is using mainly thermal power plants as an alternative. Hence, the need to find the availability of natural resources, of which Japan has a general scarcity.