By Clestine Juan
Can Guyana’s environmental oversight keep pace with the rapid expansion of its oil industry? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the leadership of Executive Director Dr. Kemraj Parsram, is confident the answer is yes.
Guyana’s Stabroek Block holds an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent—a resource base that has attracted global attention, investment, and scrutiny. Daily production has already surged to about 900,000 barrels, propelling Guyana into the ranks of the world’s fastest-growing oil producers.
Against this backdrop, the Environmental Protection Agency is racing to ensure oversight keeps pace with the scale of development. Over the past five years, the agency has had to evolve in real time—expanding its technical capacity, strengthening regulatory systems, and building processes to match the demands of a rapidly growing offshore industry.
“Guyana’s environmental monitoring capacity has expanded significantly over the last five years as the scale of its offshore oil and gas operations increased,” Dr. Parsram said, pointing to strengthened technical systems, regulatory processes, and institutional capacity.
What is emerging is not a finished system, but one under active construction, shaped by necessity, pressure and the realities of managing both opportunity and risk at once. Click here to read more.
