Guyana should not hold off on establishing a National Oil Company (NOC), according to the former head of Brazil’s oil and gas regulatory body, Nelson Narciso Filho, who says it would be essential for ensuring local capacity in industry planning and negotiations.
“How are you going to retain the knowledge to get independent if you don’t have the capacity locally? My personal view is that you should have a national company. For me there is no doubt,” Narciso Filho, who headed Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, told Sunday Stabroek during an interview on the sidelines of the recent Institute of the Americas’ La Jolla Energy Conference. “…Who will be retaining all that knowledge? Will you be dependent forever on the other guys?” he questioned.
An NOC is either fully or largely owned by a national government. A 2011 World Bank paper, titled National Oil Companies and Value Creation, had noted that “NOCs are of great consequence to their country’s economy, to importing countries’ energy security, and to the stability of oil and gas markets.”
