HGP Nightly News – Behind the glitz and the international networking, something was missing. Dr. Vincent Adams, a former senior official with deep experience in Guyana’s petroleum sector, has issued a pointed critique of the recent oil and gas conference, arguing that the event sidestepped critical national issues while excluding voices from the political opposition.
The conference featured nearly 100 speakers, including senior government officials and a wide range of foreign dignitaries. What it did not include, Adams noted, was any representative from opposition parties that together secured close to half of the national vote in the last elections. “This exclusion is divisive,” Adams stated.
He questioned the criteria used to determine participation, particularly in light of past government assertions that the opposition lacked qualified representatives in oil and gas matters. If that was the justification, he suggested, the conference programming itself proved otherwise, by failing to include them at all.
Beyond political representation, Adams raised concerns about who could actually attend. High admission fees and participation costs, he argued, placed the event beyond the reach of ordinary citizens and small businesses. A conference about the nation’s most valuable resource, he suggested, should be accessible to the nation itself.
Even for those who made it inside, the format raised questions. Adams alleged that local participants were prevented from posing questions directly during panel discussions, limiting scrutiny of how the sector is being managed. When citizens cannot ask questions about their own resources, he implied, transparency becomes a one-way street.
But his sharpest critique was reserved for what the conference left off the agenda entirely.Adams outlined what he described as a list of “burning issues” that went unaddressed: contract renegotiation, environmental compliance, flaring, produced water disposal, production limits, oil spill liability guarantees, and the pace of withdrawals from the Natural Resource Fund.
These are not minor technical details. They are the fundamental questions that determine whether Guyana’s oil wealth becomes a blessing or a curse. “A conference of this magnitude should have prioritized lessons learned and institutional strengthening,” Adams argued. Instead, he suggested, it functioned more as a promotional showcase, disconnected from the pressing national concerns that affect every Guyanese citizen.
