Deputy Commissioner-General, Lancelot Wills responsible for Customs, revealed on Friday, January 31, 2020 that Guyana Revenue Authority has established an Interim Customs Petroleum Unit which will be tasked with overseeing and monitoring production. Also a Petroleum Audit Department which will focus on taxation. The Departments will directly oversee Guyana’s flourishing oil sector.
He said that negotiations are ongoing with ExxonMobil to have GRA staffers accommodated and equipped to monitor operations on the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, for example, to ensure that Guyana gets its fair share of revenues, in accordance with contractual obligations.
It was explained that once internet connectivity challenges are surmounted, a CCTV feed will be live streaming video to observe what transpires offshore.
The second lift of Guyana’s light crude, which ExxonMobil is entitled to, is expected early February, according to Wills, “our next lift is slated for tentatively the February 3 or 4, 2020 and we are in a full state of readiness.”
In the absence of the live stream, at least four officers have been requested to be offshore at all times on rotating shifts. They are being transported by ExxonMobil’s helicopter service.
“We now have identified the persons who will be going there, whether they should be there weekly …we are working out that modality, the office space and the types of computers and all sort of things,” Mr. Godfrey Statia, Commissioner-General of GRA mentioned.
