The National Oil Incident Emergency Response and Financial Responsibility Bill 2024 is expected to be tabled in the National Assembly before parliament goes for recess in August. This was announced by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo at his weekly press conference on Thursday, June 6.
The Vice President disclosed that the first draft of the bill was expected to be available on the evening of June 6 and would be distributed to the relevant government departments or agencies for feedback. The bill will address the issue of liability in the case of an oil spill and oil spill management.
“So this will greatly enhance our capability to not just hold those responsible for any potential polluting activity, not just the oil and gas producers or the oil companies, but shipping companies and others, to hold them fully liable but also ensure that people, if their activities are affected, they will be fully compensated for any loss that they incur because of a potential oil spill.”
VP Jagdeo added that the government has put measures in place to ensure that ExxonMobil Guyana swiftly addresses a spill should it occur. One of the measures alluded to was the availability of a capping stack in Guyana to immediately plug an oil spill should it occur. A capping stack is a piece of equipment placed over a blown-out well as a cap to “stop or redirect the flow of hydrocarbons and to buy time for engineers to permanently seal the well.”
The issue of liability and full coverage in the case of an oil spill has been a hot-button issue as several environmental advocates and commentators have raised concern over the issue of the country’s capacity and adequacy of resources to effectively address a potential oil spill.