Oil and Gas capacity building – Customs Petroleum Unit receives offshore safety and emergency response training

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Twenty-three (23) officers within the Customs Petroleum Unit (CPU) of the Guyana Revenue Authority completed a Tropical Helicopter Underwater Egress Training (THUET) course to develop knowledge and operating procedures in offshore safety and emergency response.

The training session conducted at HHSL Safety Systems Limited in Trinidad and Tobago is mandatory for the officers who perform Customs controls and other monitoring functions on board oil exploration vessels.

The first batch comprised of seven (7) officers, including Mr. Lancelot Wills, Deputy-Commissioner of CPU, benefitted from the training in January of this year. In July a second batch comprising of fifteen (15) participated in this training.

Training at the facility encompassed emergency techniques such as donning an aviation life jacket, preparing for a helicopter ditching on water, evacuation through a nominated exit to an aviation life raft, or escaping through a window opening from a partially or fully submerged helicopter.

The THUET is one of several escape simulation techniques for CPU and other officers who board any Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel. Guyana is building capacity for training on local shores, with the imminent establishment of the country’s first oil and gas training centre by private developers.

The facility, which is under construction at Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, will reduce the need for locals to travel overseas for accreditation in Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training (BOSIET) with Compressed Air Breathing System (CA-EBS). Demand for these skills will increase as exploration intensifies and more vessels are established offshore.

The CPU was established with the mandate to monitor and verify activities in the oil and gas sector for taxation purposes based on the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act and in keeping with the Production Sharing Agreement between the Guyana Government, Esso Exploration and Production Ltd, CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Ltd and HESS Guyana Exploration Ltd.

Thus far, the CPU and Petroleum Revenue Department (PRD), have benefited from capacity building in the areas such as crude lifting and measurement, S&P Global Platts, case advice, boarding officers’ documentation, and oil and gas risk management. Support in these endeavours has come through partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Technical Assistance (OTA)

(Department of Public Information)