The Chamber Asked for More Information on Oil Contracts. The Law Has Ordered It Published Since 2021.

Kathy Smith, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, asked the government to watch foreign and regional oil contractors more closely. She spoke on 24 September at the Chamber’s third energy luncheon, themed “Beyond the Barrel”, at the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown. The Chamber wants “more monitoring and observation from the government’s standpoint”, she said, OilNOW reported.

Her test was what the contractors are here to do. Companies coming to Guyana, Smith argued, must understand that they are here to build Guyanese businesses and the wider economy, not only their own operations.

Part of what she asked for is already a statutory duty. Section 11(5) of the Local Content Act 2021 reads: “The Secretariat shall cause to be published an approved extract of a Local Content Plan on the website of the Ministry responsible for petroleum or on any other media of wide circulation and that publication shall not include any confidential or proprietary information.”