Kaieteur News
GEORGETOWN
EnergiesNet.com 02 27 2023
Guyana and India will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance cooperation in the energy sector beyond crude oil exports, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo disclosed during an interview with WION’s (World Is One News) Diplomatic Correspondent Sidhant Sibal.
World Is One News (WION) is an Indian multinational English language news channel headquartered in New Delhi. Jagdeo is in India on an official visit from February 20 to 25, 2023, at the invitation of the Vice President of India. He is accompanied by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh.
During the interview with Sibal, Jagdeo was asked, “What kind of energy cooperation exists between India and Guyana? Any plans to export crude to India?”
Jagdeo responded, “So we’re expecting shortly to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that would go beyond just the export of crude, but we’ll look at the energy sector and its development in its totality.”
He explained that Guyana is now trying to build the architecture for a broader look at the energy sector and enhance cooperation between Guyana and India.
“And we are also looking to learn quite a bit from India. In that process as we build out our industry. In Guyana, it’s a fledgling industry. We just started producing oil in 2019. By 2027, we will produce over a million barrels, maybe 1.2 million barrels per day, that’s a steep ramp-up. That’s almost 20% of India’s daily use,” the Vice President said.
According to Jagdeo, Guyana is working to ensure that the sector develops in a manner where the oil companies bear their share of responsibilities both from an environmental perspective and a fiscal perspective and that the industry is developed in an orderly way.
“So that is why India’s assistance and its great technical skills, you have a lot of smart people here who can help us in defining the growth of the industry, but not just on oil, on the gas sector as we move to develop a gas policy and to start utilizing the gas resources and then in terms of environmental management, building capacity across the country,” Jagdeo added.
To this end, he noted that the Government of Guyana is looking forward with great excitement to the development of a strong relationship with India on energy-related matters.
Moreover, India’s Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, in a Twitter post on Friday stated, “A very productive & fruitful meeting to further cement the ties between our two countries with Vice-President of Guyana HE Dr Bharrat Jagdeo & Guyanese Finance Minister HE Dr Ashni K Singh in New Delhi today.”
In a second tweet, Minister Puri disclosed, “In our wide ranging meeting on several matters of mutual interest, we particularly discussed matters pertaining to the entire energy chain including participation in assets, commitment for long term off take & capacity building initiatives.”
kaieteurnewsonline.com 02 25 2023
