In the absence of national regulations to govern how oil companies such as ExxonMobil are to manage their operations in an environmentally friendly manner, their permits to be had from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will see the insertion of international standards from the USA and Canada.
This is according to EPA Head, Dr. Vincent Adams who says he has the absolute confidence that the oil companies will display the highest regard for the new provisions.
The EPA Head said, “We have no regulations nationally and when the oil laws were written, there was no thought or dream that we would be in this position today. However, there are tons of international standards that we are adopting into our permits and we have a lot of confidence in this approach.”
The official added, “We don’t have the capability or know-how right now to develop standards for the sector because developing Guyana context standards will require lots of studies so we are looking at what is established by developed countries.”
Dr. Adams disclosed that since taking charge of the EPA, he has been looking over every permit issued to oil companies since he is the only person there with the knowledge and experience to do so.
In the meantime, he has been sending several of his staff members to international conferences and training sessions abroad so that they can be better acquainted with the technicalities of the sector. He said too that he has been working to make the salaries more competitive to keep those who received training.
