National upstream petroleum policy on the table |25 May 2017

Petroleum is a very important commodity in Seychelles and currently the country depends entirely on petroleum products as a source of energy.

Since March 2012, the responsibility for the upstream sector in Seychelles was transferred to PetroSeychelles and Seychelles Petroleum Company (Seypec) retained the responsibility for the downstream sector.

While Seypec is responsible for importing, transporting, marketing and sales of refined petroleum products such as LPG, gasoline, kerosene, diesel among others, PetroSeychelles is spearheading the development of a national upstream petroleum policy and it is being helped in this task by the United States Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR) and the United States Department of Commerce, Commercial Law Development Programme (CLDP) under the US Energy Governance Capacity Initiative (EGCI) programme.

The upstream petroleum policy aims at promoting efficient and safe petroleum operations and helping manage Seychelles’ petroleum resources in an environmentally responsible, transparent manner to ensure equitable benefits for the people of Seychelles and create lasting value to society.

A workshop to discuss the national upstream petroleum policy opened yesterday morning at the Eden Bleu hotel and was attended by stakeholders as well as PetroSeychelles’ chief executive Patrick Joseph.

Addressing all present, PetroSeychelles chairman Barry Faure stated that following the discovery of the micro-continental nature of Seychelles in the early sixties, several efforts have been made to explore for and exploit hydrocarbon resources in Seychelles.

“Several efforts have been made to explore for and exploit hydrocarbon resources in the Seychelles exclusive economic zone (EEZ) by international oil and gas companies and these efforts, which so far include acquisition of large volumes of geophysical data and the drilling of four exploration wells, have demonstrated that all the perquisites for hydrocarbon generation and accumulation are present and well developed. The discovery of commercial deposits is therefore a real possibility,” he said.

He added that hydrocarbon discovery has the potential of generating immense wealth over time.

“If such resource is managed properly as it can under good governance, this can translate into a better life for our people. We must learn from countries that have suffered the resource curse and ensure that we do not make the same mistakes,” he said.

To be able to manage such sector, Seychelles needs a petroleum policy that guides the development of the laws and regulations as well as the actions of every stakeholder. Such policy will also help send positive signals to the industry that they can safely invest in our upstream sector.

Sheryl Bennet and Eric Camp from the CLDP have travelled great distances to share their knowledge and experience and help in the drafting of the policy.

Ms Bennet stated that such workshop is to focus on making sure that there is an understanding of the key stages of petroleum development.

“It is important to manage the petroleum development. It is a long process and takes a number of years just for the exploration phase which does not necessarily guarantee there will be commercial viability for such development. So we want to make sure that such sector will allow development in Seychelles and benefit the country. Also we are at the beginning of the discussion, it can take years to lay the ground work and we are making sure to address the key issues from all stakeholders,” she said.

PetroSeychelles’ mission is to strengthen Seychelles’ capabilities to deal with exploration and other activities related to the development of the petroleum potential of the island state.