GuyanaOGEC Oil and Gas Blog …a GT Lime

Welcome to our website!

ExxonMobil’s discovery, to date, of more than 8 BBOE (billion barrels of oil equivalent) is a game-changer for Guyana, its economy, and potentially transformational for the entire Caribbean region. 

With first oil on December 20, 2019, the Guyanese public is still trying to figure out what that means, how it will affect their daily lives and future, what the opportunities are, and how to get in on the opportunities. The GuyanaOGEC Oil & Gas Blog is Guyana’s oil and gas business information resource designed with the Guyanese public in mind. By reading our posts, we hope you find answers to questions you may have about the oil and gas business and issues of specific relevance to Guyana and Guyanese. Please read our posts and contact us with questions or topics you would like us to address.

In June 2018, GuyanaOGEC held its inaugural Guyana Oil & Gas Business Training Conference at the Pegasus Hotel in Georgetown, Guyana. Aimed at Guyanese professionals, the two-day program was well received. Based in part on feedback from the conference, we decided to start this website. Feedback included delegates’ interest in getting more of what we offered at GuyanaOGEC 2018 … unbiased factual information and analysis on topics and issues pertaining to oil and gas development in Guyana and relevant to Guyana and Guyanese.

Now an annual event, GuyanaOGEC’s June 2019 Conference was well received by attendees and the local media. Our 2020 Conference, focusing on the natural gas value stream, is in the works for July 2020. For more about the upcoming July 2020 GuyanaOGEC Conference and to register, please visit the conference website at https://www.GuyanaOGEC.com

Thanks for visiting!

The purpose of this website is to share accurate factual information and expert insights on topics and issues relevant to Guyana ‘s oil and gas development, and the challenges and opportunities arising therefrom.

As publisher and principal editor, I designed this blog space as a forum for sharing oil and gas business and related information with the Guyanese public, in Guyana and in the diaspora. Because there’s no real power without knowledge (knowledge is power), it is imperative that the Guyanese public is well-informed about oil and gas (and energy) matters.

On December 20, 2019, the first barrel of oil flowed from the Liza I field … ushering in a new era for Guyana as an oil-producing nation. Having sufficient oil and gas industry knowledge or understanding will enable Guyanese to better participate in their new petroleum ( ‘oil and gas’ ) economy. An informed and prepared Guyanese public can take advantage of business and employment opportunities along the oil and gas industry value chain and the ancillary services sector … food services, housing, transportation, security, field services, etc.

What this blog is not about. This space is not a place for partisanship and the airing of political opinions and biases. It is also NOT the place for uninformed opinions from fly-by-night oil & gas experts. Finally, it is not the place for inflammatory statements or denigration of any person, entity, or group.

We hope that readers of postings on this site will leave better informed about oil and gas matters, and stimulated to ask more questions into those areas that interest them.

Edwin Montague Callender, Esq.

Edwin M. Callender is an attorney and energy consultant based in Houston, Texas. He is managing member of The Callender Law Firm, PLLC, a practice focused in the areas of oil & gas law, commercial transactions, business law, private placements, estate planning, and consumer law. As an energy and oil and gas industry professional delivering quality legal-, consulting-, and technical- services across various industry segments for more than 30 years, Mr. Callender has held positions of great responsibility and business impact at major oil & gas-, refining-, natural gas-, and electric power- companies. His expertise includes business strategy, commercial transactions, energy deal structuring and risk analysis, process engineering, business planning, and business optimization. Mr. Callender’s unique combination of legal-, analytical-, engineering-, and business- skills evidences his broad and deep expertise.

Edwin graduated from Guyana’s Bishop’s High School, and earned his BSc. degree in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After completing two years of PhD study in Physical-Organic Chemistry at LSU and passing the PhD general exam, he joined Atlantic Richfield Company as a chemical engineer in Houston, Texas and began a career in the energy and oil & gas industry.

Mr. Callender graduated magna cum laude with his Juris Doctor degree from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. Edwin also earned an MBA-Finance, and a MSc. degree in Chemical Engineering (both from the University of Houston). He is respected for his contributions and competence in his fields of endeavor, and holds a European patent for a commercial petrochemical process. Mr. Callender is a member of numerous professional organizations, including: the State Bar of Texas, the New York State Bar, Houston Bar Association, American Bar Association, the Houston Lawyers Association where he is also a member of the board of directors, the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN), and the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).

Mr. Callender is licensed to practice law in Texas and New York.