IADC Participates in Guyana Basins Summit

9 November 2022

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IADC was pleased to participate in the 2022 Guyana Basins Summit (GBS), the only regional summit serving the Guyana-Suriname Basin. The theme of GBS 2022 was Responsibly Developing the Region’s Resources for a Prosperous and Sustainable Future. IADC was an Associate Sponsor of the event, along with several industry partner organizations.

At GBS 2022, IADC participated in a “Special Sessions Series” targeted at introducing the audience to the participating upstream industry associations (IADC, IOGP, API, IPIECA, and ARPEL) and engaging the topic of oil spill response preparedness in the Caribbean Region, including Guyana and Suriname. Jim Rocco, IADC Senior Director – Government & Industry Affairs – Offshore, attended and contributed to the summit.

The series was presented in four parts, of which IADC participated in the first three.

Part 1 provided an introduction of each of the participating associations. Rocco conducted a brief presentation of IADC, and other representatives did the same for their respective associations.
Part 2 was a Regional Regulators & Policy session. Rocco was given the opportunity to sit on this panel as a former U.S. Coast Guard regulator. He was able to share his experience relative to oil spill preparedness and posit considerations for building out oil spill plans related to Guyana and Suriname. Rocco engaged alongside Cedric Nelom, Director of Suriname’s Environmental Ministry, NIMOS.
In Part 3 of the series, Rocco and co-moderator Bryan Allen from API conducted an interview with Jonathan Smith, Suriname HSE Vice President for Total Energies. This session illustrated oil spill considerations from the operator perspective. Cross-border coordination among government officials, logistics for resourcing spill response execution, and supply-chain spill response collaboration were several of the topics Rocco and Allen discussed with Smith. This session included a Q&A segment with the audience.
In Part 4, Miguel Moyano from ARPEL moderated a session presentation by Lukas Rodriguez, U.S. Coast Guard IMO Consultant to RAC-REMPEITC, a Caribbean pollution response coordination center funded by the UN Environment Program, IMO, and the UN Development Program. Rodriguez provided coordination of spill response activities as the need might, but hopefully never will, arise in the Caribbean along with planning and preparedness work he engages in.

Rocco summed up his experience by stating,

“Overall, the GBS was a great opportunity to introduce Caribbean upstream stakeholders to the participating industry associations, including IADC, and most importantly make these stakeholders aware of the subject matter expertise each can contribute towards enhancing spill response awareness and ‘know-how.’ Furthermore, as the Guyana-Suriname region is quite nascent in the emerging offshore oil and gas industry, engagement between industry and government stakeholder groups will be critical to establishing and maintaining the necessary posture with respect to oil spill preparedness and the broader health, safety, and environmental concerns of which spill response is a part. Engagement at this event set the stage for the Association’s future visits and activities related to underpinning oil and gas operations in the Caribbean region.”